Summer Flag Flies

High Over Newtown

By Dottie Evans

Right from the start, Newtown’s 2003 summer flag showed an independent spirit.

Looking like a spinnaker heading downwind, the magnificent new 20-foot by 30-foot flag caught a fresh breeze early Saturday morning, unfurled, billowed forth and nearly flew by itself right up to the top of the 100-foot flagpole.

“I love it when the wind blows like this,” said retired Police Lt Dave Lydem.

Lt Lydem and other Lions Club members wrestled with the unruly, flapping flag that kept tugging out of their hands, trying to hold it down while he affixed the clips to the corner grommets. With the clips rattling and jerking, Lt Lydem had some difficulty applying electrician’s tape to the joints so the nylon material would not become snagged.

 It would not be a good thing, he said, if the flag got snarled at the top of the metal flagpole, far from reach.

“It really helps when you have five or six guys like this working together,” added Lt Lydem.

Meanwhile, as Lions Club members Dave Lydem, Bill Lavery, Gordon Williams, Kevin Corey, Richard Kovacs, and Peter McNulty were attaching the flag to its ropes at ground level, making sure the stars and stripes were right side up, two firefighters from the Newtown Hook and Ladder Fire Department assisted from above by keeping the ropes taut and making sure they were not twisted.

Before lowering and removing the 12-foot by 18-foot winter flag, traffic along Main Street and Church Hill Road was slowed at 9 am as the Hook and Ladder fire truck was driven alongside.

 Two firefighters were raised on the truck’s extension ladder to carefully take down the yellow ribbons that had been placed high on the flagpole for American soldiers serving abroad. The new summer flag would be up by Memorial Day Weekend and a set of new ribbons would likely be in place for the ceremony.

By 9:25 am, the winter flag was down, the summer flag was up, and traffic was flowing again.

The 2003 summer flag is nearly three times as big as the winter flag. It was paid for, this year as in the past, by the Newtown Lions Club.

The flagpole at the busy intersection of Church Hill Road and Main Street has been named a historic landmark, so there can be no further attempts by the state Department of Transportation to remove it (as has happened twice in its history, in 1913 and 1981).

Upon occasion, the steel pole needs repainting and new ropes must be purchased, so a flagpole fund has been established to which people and organizations may contribute. Donation checks should be made out to the Town of Newtown (Flagpole) and mailed to Lt David Lydem, 75 George’s Hill Road, Newtown, CT 06470.