In photo, arrow points to crane, which is approximate height and location of proposed cellular tower. Massapequa residents were invited by a telecommunicatons company looking for approval from the Town of Oyster Bay to put up a 150-foot cellular tower near the Sunrise Mall to come out and view the location as well what the proposed tower would look like on Tuesday, June 6th.

A visual study was done with a 150-foot crane at 40 Carmans Road, between Sunrise Highway and Sunrise Mall. The crane, sitting on a commercial lot that once housed The Wiz electronics store, could be seen from Sunrise Highway above the circular building that formerly held the Waffle House.

A joint application by LI Waves Inc., New Cingular Wireless PCS LLC, Omnipoint Communications and Nextel of New York Inc. for the proposed public utility wireless communications facility will ask the Town to approve the 150-foot monopole, or flagpole. A formal hearing on that application is expected some time in July.

A similar pole, located in front of the Massapequa Park Village Hall, was surrounded by tremendous public opposition, but another 110-foot tower by New Cingular Wireless was just okayed by the Town's Zoning Board of Appeals for installation at 46 Brooklyn Avenue in Massapequa and drew little or no public protest.

Ellen Webner, spokesperson for Cingular Wireless said that each tower is capable of covering only between a one and two mile area and that as people rely more and more on cell phones for communications, these telecommunications towers become more of a necessity.

"Massapequa is a pretty large area," she said. "We need to make sure your calls aren't dropped." She would not confirm if the company was also looking at other sites in the area.

According to Webner, representatives from Cingular were on site during the survey to take residents' recommendations.

The application now goes to the Town's Zoning Board of Appeals. A date for that hearing has not been scheduled.