The Dallas County Board of Supervisors approved a new $28,950 scheme for rearranging the flag poles on the ground of the Dallas County Courthouse.
The U.S. and Iowa flags atop the present 40-foot flag pole, which stands in the southeast quarter of the courthouse grounds, are obscured by the boscage of mature trees that survived last month’s derecho straight-line winds, so a proposal to relocate the tall pole for the sake of greater visibility was brought forward for the supervisors’ consideration.
In addition, Dallas County Facilities Manager Ron Herring recommended replacing the single, shorter flag pole that stands behind the twinned stelas, erected in honor of Dallas County’s war dead and prisoners of war, with a three-pole arrangement, featuring a 25-foot pole flying the U.S. flag flanked by two 20-foot poles flying the Iowa flag and POW-MIA flag.
The supervisors toured the grounds July 21 and weighed the possibilities. There are grounds for retaining the flag pole near the southeast corner: The courthouse presents a fine prospect when approached from the south, which is also where the bulk of the county’s 95,000 residents live and in whose hands most of the county’s median annual household income of $85,000 in concentrated.
After the supervisors confirmed for themselves that the trees block the line of sight to the current flag pole from the south, they chose northeast corner as nearer the entrance to the building.
The proposal for the relocated flag pole and the three-staff arrangement for the memorial stones was approved Tuesday and confirmed in a contract with Grimes-based Edge Companies. The work includes grading the site of the new tallest flag pole, constructing the concrete foundations and aprons for all new poles, wiring the sites for electrical power and removing the previous poles’ foundations.
The westernmost stele reads:
This monument dedicated in memory of all veterans of Dallas County of all wars and conflicts, who fell in the service of our country, and to those who offered their lives, through their service, for justice, freedom, and democracy so that our nation might survive to be the victorious ideals of the peoples of the world.
