Hewlett Neck antenna system hearing postponed until further notice

A public hearing set to take place at the Dec. 19 Village of Hewlett Neck board of trustees meeting was postponed. A new date is yet to be set.

The hearing was expected to include a vote on the building of a distributed antenna system in front of 140 Woodmere Blvd. South, at the border of Hewlett Neck and Woodsburgh. Village Deputy Clerk Karen Quintavall said the postponement was requested by Crown Castle.

The Houston-based company Crown Castle originally submitted an application to build the antenna system in June 2017. Crown Castle is the largest provider of shared communications infrastructure, and responsible for more than 40,000 cell towers and roughly 70,000 route miles of fiber across the country. The system can be built upon an existing utility pole and is able to provide 5G wireless service. 

Residents expressed their concerns with the system as it would include the building of a 24-inch antenna on top of the existing utility pole that would emit radio frequency radiation. The Concerned Citizens for a Safer 5 Towns group had a full-page advertisement in the Dec. 5 and Dec. 12 issues of the Herald addressing their safety concerns.

According to Crown Castle officials, the Federal Communications Commission has said that the distributed antenna system does not pose any immediate health dangers.