The Old Rugged Cellphone Tower

The headline on Drudge suggests this is something new, but I've seen it lots of times:

ALTON — Residents along Milton Road could be saved from the view of a hulking cell phone tower if one company has its way. Saved, that is, by a giant cross.

Creve Coeur-based CIS Communications has put forth a proposal to conceal a cell phone tower for U.S. Cellular inside a 95-foot cross to be built on land owned by the Way of Faith Christian Center. Church members have agreed to lease space on church property as long as the tower is designed as a simple Christian icon instead of a metal tangle of bars and wires.

I had church clients all over San Diego County with cell towers of all types built into their facilities. A cross was one of the options presented by the cellphone companies when they made a pitch to a church.

Church properties are preferred for cellphone sites because the buildings are often taller than surrounding structures and churches are often very receptive (no pun intended) to the $1,800 or so a month the towers generate in easy income to the congregation. One of my clients had four different companies with towers on their property.