Lake Ronkonkoma residents rap cell tower

About 25 residents of Lake Ronkonkoma gathered on a wind-whipped street corner Saturday morning to protest the installation of a new telephone cell tower in their neighborhood.

They complained that they had gotten little information about the proposed tower, which is being built by T-Mobile on a Long Island Power Authority right-of-way on 11th Street, just west of Bay Avenue. And, they said, work crews had left heavy equipment on the sidewalk next to their children's school bus stop.

"They don't tell us anything," said Kurt Johnson, whose house is just to the north of the site. "The gist of it is that if you ask the Town of Brookhaven, Brookhaven will say it's LIPA. If you ask LIPA, LIPA says it's T-Mobile. If you ask T-Mobile, T-Mobile will say: 'Oh, absolutely it's the Town of Brookhaven.' "

Both LIPA and T-Mobile said all the proper permits had been acquired, and a LIPA spokeswoman said Saturday that she has personally spoken to several neighborhood residents who called the utility and explained the situation to them.

A Town of Brookhaven work permit issued to T-Mobile on Jan. 7 was taped to the base of what will be the new tower. A town spokesman said late Saturday that no public hearing was required for the construction permit.

T-Mobile issued a statement Saturday saying, in part: "We apologize for any inconvenience the construction process has caused residents and will work to address their concerns going forward."

The school bus stop is on the northwest corner of Bay Avenue at 11th Street and is in the east-west path of the right of way, with its row of electrical transmission towers stretching as far as the eye can see.

Jamie Mare, whose daughter gets on and off the school bus at the intersection, said children sometimes had to be dropped off and picked up farther down the street because of equipment strewn around the site.

"They dropped a drill bit the size of a small car next to the bus stop. They had a forklift attachment right here," she said, pointing at the sidewalk. She said she wrote a letter to local elected officials on Jan. 13, but never got a response.

With Mark Harrington