HASSO HERING

A perspective from Oregon’s mid-Willamette Valley

Albany’s new flag: The latest

Written August 26th, 2016 by Hasso Hering
The flag design symbolizes and is supposed to represent "Confluence and Crossroads."

The flag design symbolizes and represents “Confluence and Crossroads.”

In case you’re wondering what’s happening as the result of this month’s Albany flag decision, stick around and with the help of Marilyn Smith, the public information officer at City Hall, you’re about to find out.

As you will recall, the city council sponsored a design contest after a club at West Albany High School suggested the city should have its own flag. A bunch of entries were submitted and five semifinalists were put out to the public for a survey. The flag club’s design ranked highest in the survey — a flag poll, actually, as my friend Jeff McMahon adroitly pointed out on KGAL — and the city council agreed that this should be the city flag design.

So what happened since? Smith updated the council this week, and I asked her to summarize the situation for me. Here’s what she wrote:

“We will order three flags from Elmer’s Flag and Banner in Portland. Total cost is $389. Councilor Kopczynski’s $100 prize to the winner is being turned back by the WAHS students to go toward that expense. The rest of the cost will be paid from the City Council’s budget. The West Albany students plan to march with the new flag in the Veterans Day parade. We plan to fly the flag at City Hall beginning Monday, Nov. 14.”

She added: “Cole Pouliot, the West math teacher and flag group adviser, has ordered five flags from a source in China for less than $100. He plans to fly one at his house and have another one in his classroom, at least. He was hoping we could have small hand-held flags to hand out to people at the parade and has considered a gofundme account to raise money for them.”

There was mention at Wednesday’s council meeting that there are nine flag poles at city buildings, and should the council get enough flags for all? No, the consensus had it, nobody needs the chore of hauling extra flags up and down that many poles. (hh)

 

 

 





6 responses to “Albany’s new flag: The latest”

  1. Jackson Cauter says:

    The flags should have been sourced locally. Tin-eared politicos give lip service to area business, but when push comes to shove, political will gives way to the fear of a few bad headlines.

  2. hj.anony1 says:

    Standing the test of time! Well a couple months … great flag!! But …

    CHINA!?!??! Arriving on the same shipping container as tRump’s ties and tRump’s “make ‘merica great again” hats?

    On the flipside, a small-handheld flag would be nice. A suggestion: one for every Albany resident as WE begin to pay that rain tax.

  3. Hazel Siebrecht says:

    I like this flag and will be looking for it at City Hall!

  4. Shawn Dawson says:

    Every thing is a lesson, especially for teachers. Ordering flags from China is teaching that the primary thing that matters is cost. Cost over jobs and over social responsibility. Teacher salaries are paid by taxes. It takes jobs to create taxes. When one chooses not to support jobs as close to home as possible, it has social consequences — less jobs for those in the U.S, and more poverty.

    Many folks say that things are not made in the U.S. But this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I make it a habit of reading the origin of every single thing I buy, from my shoes to my salmon, and supporting U.S. jobs as much as possible. While this does not mean that everything I buy is from the U.S, it does mean that most of it is. Something as simple to find as a flag made in the U.S. would be a slam dunk if one cared about giving jobs to the families who send their kids to public schools.

    A quick google for ‘american made flag companies’ found sites which could do this in the United States, including a company at valleyforgeflag.com in addition to Elmer’s chosen by the city.

    The Elmer’s Flag and Banner web site states the their flags are mostly made in America, so kudos to the city for supporting this business.

    -Shawn

 

 
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