The Perry Volunteer Fire Department, hoping to take advantage of a break in the weather Saturday morning in order to replace the 11 flags over the Hotel Pattee, closed off a block of the Willis Avenue boulevard and raised the ladder to the 107-year-old landmark before discovering the recently ordered replacements were not the right flags for the job.
“We were going to put the news ones up, but they were the wrong flags,” said Perry Volunteer Fire Department Chief Chris Hinds. “Every one of those poles has an arm on the bottom of it that extends out to hold the bottom of the flag stiff, and it keeps it from wrapping around and around and around the pole. The flag has to have leather reinforcing on the bottom side and a grommet for that arm to fasten on to. None of the flags ordered was that way.”
Hinds said the right flags must be sturdy enough to withstand high winds and harsh weather.
“Somebody said, ‘Well, couldn’t you have just poked a hole in the flag and fastened it to it?’ That wouldn’t have lasted long enough to get the ladder taken down and put away before it ripped out. Those flags need to be firmly attached and not just flimsy little nylon things with a hole in it.”
The correct replacement flags will now be ordered, Hinds said. He said the large, central flag pole on the hotel’s roof, which flies the U.S. and Iowa flags, was damaged in the 2020 derecho wind storm and will also be replaced.
I guess no one thought to use common sense and check the flags BEFORE wasting taxpayers dollars to bring a ladder truck out to do a job that could have been handled by any sign installer without wasting tax payer’s money on equipment that is supposed to be for emergency use.
For a volunteer fire department doing this, it makes sense to me. It’s great practice using said equipment.