To the editor:

Last spring, a company called St. Charles Tower Inc. approached the city of Crestwood seeking to build a 100-foot cell phone tower in a residentially zoned area.

The director of public works and the zoning board clearly understood the merits of the project were outweighed by the neighborhood’s zoning restrictions. The neighborhood stood singularly behind the city officials and staff who denied the application.

Recently, in a desperate attempt to save their ill-conceived plans, St. Charles Tower filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Crestwood. Included in St. Charles Tower’s argument is a preposterous claim that since the proposed cell phone tower is located on the grounds of an Episcopal church that they should be granted an exemption from zoning restrictions because it would be a burden on religious exercise.

As a Christian, I was never taught that God needed a cell phone tower on a church’s property to hear us. Thus, the city of Crestwood will be dragged into court and incur needless legal fees at a time when we struggle to keep our fire and emergency services adequately funded.

Shame on St. Charles Tower Inc. And shame on Rev. Daniel J. Handschy whose quest to line the Church of the Advent’s pockets with fat leasing fees has outweighed his duty to be a good neighbor.

Walter Chilenski

Crestwood