A large metal tower behind the Village Commons Bookstore has left students wondering what it is and why it is there.

The structure is a Verizon Wireless cell phone tower. It is being constructed on land owned by the Immanuel Lutheran Church and Student Center.

Verizon leases the land from the church, said Darlene Hillmann of the Immanuel Lutheran Church and Student Center.

Verizon approached the church with the idea for a tower, she said. Verizon and the Immanuel Lutheran Church have been working together for about three years on the project.

The tower was approved April 25 by the DeKalb City Council.

“The city didn’t want a mono-pole,” Hillmann said. “We’ve been working together to make something that is eye pleasing.”

The church will be able to reach a greater part of the community with the tower.

The structure will feature the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod cross on the top. It also will be adorned with three eight-foot clocks.

“The city and the church were very interested in something that could be a landmark item,” Hillmann said.

Jerry Bryant, a tower technician for National Tower Service, L.L.C., called the type of tower being built a “stealth tower,” and it is designed to not look like a regular tower.

Hillmann said a tower like this is much more expensive than a regular one.

The tower should be finished in about another two weeks, Bryant said. Verizon will set up the cellular functions for the tower this week. This will improve cell phone reception for students who have Verizon phones.

The tower’s design allows for it to include two other cellular providers. None have been selected yet.

When it is complete, the tower will be about 150 feet tall.

“Since I have Sprint, I have been having a couple problems. With this new tower, it may bring more money to the company from the students. By word of mouth students may switch services,” said Robert Isaiah Hunley, a junior meteorology major.

Bryant said plans for a new cell phone tower had been in the works for about nine years, but the city may have thought it would be an eyesore and they could have prevented its construction.

The new cell phone tower will replace a cell phone tower south of the Chick Evans Field House.