American flag to fly at Village Green

After a month of volleys fired toward City Hall over the placing of a flag with a memorial at the Village Green, the controversy seems to be over. The flag will fly.

Last Thursday evening the city council approved a motion that allows the placement of a 25-foot, down-lighted flagpole in the city's Village Green Park.

The motion was made by council member Bill Merrill, a retired U.S. Army Colonel. The flagpole will be placed to the left of the gazebo entrance in a location that corresponds to the placement of the memorial rock on the right side of the gazebo entrance. The placement of the flagpole and the memorial are intended to complement each other and provide a centerpiece of focus at the entrance to the gazebo.

One of the conditions of the flagpole approval had to do with the costs.

"The city will purchase the flagpole, in consultation with VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) Post 8138 and/or American Legion Post 86, for a cost not to exceed $1,900 to be obtained from the Community Service Grant budget line, will install the flagpole for no additional fee and pay the monthly electric bill," said Councilor Merrill.

If an acceptable flagpole cannot be found for the money budgeted by the city, "the VFW Post 8138 and/or American Legion Post 86 will provide any purchase costs in excess of the $1,900."

The care of the flagpole is in the hands of the VFW and the American Legion, according to the terms of the motion.

"Post 8138 and/or Post 86 must agree to permanently care for both the memorial stone and flagpole, including replacement of worn or damaged flags," said Councilor Merrill.

An additional condition of the approval had to do with the names to be placed upon the memorial.

"Post 8138 and/or Post 86 will change the criteria for consideration of names on the memorial to include the Sisters School District boundaries," said Merrill, who was concerned that there might be many Sisters Country veterans whose names would not qualify to be placed on the memorial due to the narrow scope of physical area that had been adopted by the VFW and American Legion proposal.

The motion was completed with the following condition: "The commander of Post 8138 and Post 86 must agree in writing to these conditions within 10 business days of today's date," said councilman Merrill.

In the time alloted at the council meeting for public comment, Phil Gale, the commander of both the local VFW and American Legion posts, approached the podium and stated: "I verbally accept the conditions that have been placed on the approval and will have a letter of acceptance at the city tomorrow."

Gale was as good as his word. "I had the letter at the city offices first thing on Friday morning. We are ready to order the flagpole on Monday morning and move forward with the installation of the flagpole for the veterans of the area," he said.

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