What's up with that cell tower that looks like a tree on the rail trail? (column)

You might have seen it as you walked along the city portion of the York County Heritage Rail Trail.

You might have seen it if you happened to drive along Kings Mill Road, just below South Penn Street and near the old crematorium.

More:What's up with that huge shoe by Route 30? (column)

More:York Suburban school board accepts superintendent's resignation

More:In York, a city overrun by guns, a boy lost his dad. Lives depend on halting the violence.

Then again, maybe you did not see it.

And that would be just fine.

Verizon has constructed a 125-foot-high cell tower, but it is disguised as a pine tree.

Seriously.

“There are different reasons,” says David Weissmann, a Verizon spokesman.

“Sometimes it fits in with the aesthetics, sometimes there are regulations.  We make them as unobtrusive as possible,” he said.

He noted that the tower could be in a church steeple or on a water tower.

“It’s not unusual to do trees,” but this could possibly be the first one in York.

York businessman Charles “”Chub” Neiman was told about the new tower.  “I asked a neighbor about it and was told that it is supposed to look like a tree,” he wrote.  “I replied ‘right … sure.’  Several days later I saw the finished product – unbelievable.  Rather than an eyesore, it is truly aesthetic.”

The “branches and needles” of the tall tree are made out of fiberglass.  For a visual, imagine a very tall artificial Christmas tree.

The base of the metal tower is surrounded by a locked fence.

Other telephone companies try to disguise their towers.  One company has its cell equipment in the domed tower of Zion UCC next to Penn Park.  Another company has its equipment attached to the smokestack of what will become the new home of the York County History Center on Philadelphia Street and Pershing Avenue.

Verizon’s Weissmann says in contrast to the big towers, there is a movement towards “what we call small cells that go on top of light poles” to provide coverage in other areas.

But for the newest big tower in York, modern technology turns to nature.

Gordon Freireich is a former editor of the York Sunday News.   Email: gordon@newtongroup.com.