The American Stars and Stripes, flanked by the Iowa flag and the POW-MIA flag, are once again proudly fluttering above the Perry welcome sign along Iowa Highway 141, and repairs to the lighting system should be complete by Flag Day, June 15, according to a local electrician.
Lightning struck the center flagpole last fall, blasting away the pole’s concrete base and blowing out the monument’s lighting.
“The lightning blew a huge chunk of concrete from the flag pole,” said Curt Bonjour of Curt’s Electric in Perry, who installed the new lighting system Wednesday.
Des Moines-based Heartland Flagpoles and Custom Flags repaired the central pole in recent weeks and now, with Bonjour’s rewiring, the restored lighting system will soon bathe Old Glory once again in white light.
In honor of the upcoming sesquicentennial celebration in July, Perry City Council member Dr. Randy McCaulley at the May 20 council meeting recommended replacing the POW/MIA flag with the Perry High School flag.
We all owe the U.S. military veterans “a great deal of gratitude for serving our country,” McCaulley told the council. “I’m not downgrading that at all. I’m just saying in the past that’s kind of been the flag pole where we put several different ones up from time to time.”
Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson acknowledged the flag on the western-most flag pole changes.
“They rotate out if we get a different flag for something,” Peterson said. “If we get one from the school, we would certainly rotate it in.”
No council members objected to McCaulley’s suggestion. The flags over the Perry sign are managed by Violet Hill Cemetery Manager Richard Steadman.
