AT&T may be adding to the environment by planting a tree in a south Eugene neighborhood in the lot of the Crossfire church. However it’ll be made of metal and will only look like a tree to disguise its true purpose as a cell tower.
At Crossfire church on 4060 West Amazon Drive, passerbys in the future may see such a tree put in place to combat the lack of cell service.
At the church and the surrounding areas, the service has been abysmal, according to bookkeeper Caitlin Pederson.
“I have to walk around, hold my phone up and when I find a bar I can’t move,” Pederson said.
In the past, the church has tried to fix the situation with what could be considered a bandage, but even that hasn’t been a reliable source of service for the people who work at the church.
“Through AT&T we do have a micro cell that hooks up through our Internet service, but it’s still not very good,” said Chuck Giddens, an associate pastor with the church.
Although cell service is nearly nonexistent near the church grounds, the surrounding neighborhood also suffers. Pastor Aaron Taylor hopes that a cell tower would not only help his church but the community as well, which is something he looks to as criteria for change.
Public response to the possibility of a disguised cell tower has come in the form of comments on a Register-Guard article that criticize the design and call for a cross-shaped cell tower.
Shaped like a tree trunk and fitted with an appropriate amount of branches, a mono pine conceals antennae, while the height and bark application can be adjusted.
Like a real tree, a mono pine would fade and deteriorate with age but the church is negotiating to maintain the appearance of the tower in an effort to make sure that after a year or two it doesn’t fall apart and lose its camouflage.
In order to be sure that the tower wouldn’t put the community at risk, Taylor researched and learned more about the risk of microwaves and radiation, in case the tower could pose a threat. “I think the cell phone next to your face is going to be worse than anything 70 to 90 feet in the air,” he said.
Lack of service and possible exposure to radiation aside, the extra tower is needed due to the increase in smartphones that can use the Internet on top of calling and texting.
“It’s not just cell coverage, because we have Internet access on our devices it takes up more data which means we need bigger, taller [towers] and more sites to handle it,” Taylor said.