New London - Can you hear me now?

Those who live and work around Ocean Beach Park are hoping a proposed 140-foot tower will give them consistent cellphone reception for the first time.

On Monday, the City Council awarded a 20-year contract to Message Center Management of Hartford to design and construct the so-called mono pole tower at the beach. It will tentatively be built in the center of the parking lot where a 60-foot-high metal lattice light tower now stands.

But after several neighbors on nearby Highland Avenue complained that the new tower and six small accessory buildings would be too close to their homes, MCM said the tower may be moved.

"We will re-evaluate and look at other locations,'' Christopher Gelinas, national sales manager for MCM, said following the meeting.

Ralph Matyas, who lives and owns several properties on Highland Avenue and says he pays $21,000 annually in taxes, is not opposed to the tower but is afraid of the location.

"Cellphone towers can bring down property values,'' he said, adding that the proposed tower is 520 feet from his living room and bedroom windows. "It's a monster.''

He said he was relieved to hear MCM say it would consider other sites.

While Matyas said he has cellphone service at his house, councilors said there is no service at the beach and during the busy summer season this can create a safety problem.

The city will receive $2,000 a month rent from MCM for the first two years of the contract with the rent increasing every two years. Over the course of the contact, the city should receive a total of about $1.2 million in rent, and revenue sharing from up to six wireless companies that could lease space on the tower.

All the money will go back into the park for maintenance and other projects.

The proposed tower will accommodate lighting for the parking lot and MCM will be responsible for obtaining and installing the lights. Utilities will be underground.

Save Ocean Beach, a volunteer group that keeps tabs on the beach property, endorsed the cellphone project and recommended the cylinder-style communications tower.

The old tower not only provides lighting for the parking lot, it has an active osprey nest, which will be relocated to the nature area along Alewife Cove. MCM will build the nesting platform in accordance with state Department of Environmental Protection specifications.

The project is expected to take about 28 weeks to complete. MCM still needs approvals from the Planning and Zoning Commission and the state Siting Council. Gelinas said he hopes to have the tower up and operating following the summer of 2012.

k.edgecomb@theday.com