Let There Be Four Bars: Verizon Builds Burnsville Church a Tower

The Church of the Risen Savior will be getting a new, 75-foot decorative tower along with much better cell phone reception—all for free.

Verizon Wireless is building the "stealth tower" at the church's 1501 E. County Road 42 location. Twelve antennas will be hidden inside the three-sided tower.

“This is one of the more attractive towers I have ever seen,’’ Alan Bixius, a Burnsville planner, told the Star Tribune. “The church is white, and the tower is integrated to match and complement it. You don’t see the antenna rays or anything else to suggest it is anything but a church tower.”

A Verizon spokeswoman told the paper that the company prefers to build its own cell towers, but there were no suitable locations in southeast Burnsville.

“With a typical cell tower we have more space for equipment and equipment sheds, and we have easier access to the site," Karen Smith said.

Church members are happy with the arrangement, which will bring in revenue.

“The church doesn’t necessarily look like a church,” Tim Keegan, a member of the finance council," told the Star Tribune. The tower “will certainly make it more identifiable as a worship facility.”