Wrong Cell Antennas Placed at Mineola Tower Site

Representatives from Verizon came before the last week after the five trustees called into question reasons behind the telecommunications giant’s request for a second work permit extension.

According to Building Department supervisor Dan Whalen the permit is now over a year old, having been for work being done on cellular antennas located on the transmission tower at Betty Lane and Jericho Turnpike.

Eric Helman of Garden City-based Amato Law Group said that the reason for the request to extend the permit for an additional 180 days was that “the contractor made a mistake initially” and installed the wrong type of wireless antenna atop the structure.

Despite the permit being issued by the village in August of 2010, the original work was not done until December.

“It took nearly half a year for the work to actually be done initially,” Helman said. “and then they made the mistake of putting up the wrong antenna. They’re not consistent with the design purposes of the site.”

The wireless antennas are located on a LIPA transmission tower, which according to Helman, has to be “powered down” before any work can be done, and “that involves a fairly extensive authorization process.” LIPA will not power down the structure during periods of high use – such as summer – since it is tied to the power grid.

“They’re telling us that it can be powered down by October,” Helman said, referring to LIPA.

Mayor Scott Strauss along with the rest of the board found it difficult to believe that Verizon only recently learned there was a problem with the antennas.

“You had January, February, March, April, May June, July. You only came up in July and realized that they were the wrong antennas?” he asked.

Helman responded that the realization came in the “late winter/ early spring” and by then it was too late to swap out the antennas.

“I know quite a few engineers and if something doesn’t work from a technical standpoint, they know immediately,” Trustee Lawrence Werther said.

“It doesn’t pass the sniff test,” Deputy Mayor Paul Pereira said, “because... as soon as you put those antennas up and you turned them on, someone somewhere has got to figure out ‘oops, those aren’t the right ones, get back up there tomorrow’.”

The board granted the permit extension with the stipulation that work has to begin by end of November.

“I just feel that somewhere along the line someone’s dragging their feet unnecessarily,” Mayor Strauss said, adding that there would be no further extensions and Verizon would have to reapply for another permit if it went beyond the time granted. The fee for the permit is $250.

“We want you to be aware of the fact that we’re watching,” Pereira said.