Ball From Main Street Flagpole Still Missing

By Shannon Hicks

Eight days after the Main Street flagpole was struck by a tractor-trailer its 16-inch-diameter gilded ball, technically known as a truk, remains missing.

The truk was reportedly knocked from its 100-foot-tall perch. An accident during the late afternoon of October 16 was hardly the first time the landmark has been hit by a vehicle but it was, said Keeper of The Flagpole David Lydem, the first time in nearly two decades that the flagpole was hit hard enough to lose its truk.

According to a report from the incident, Newtown Police say Harold White, 63, of Clovis, Calif., was operating a 2007 Peterbilt tractor-trailer through the Church Hill Road-Main Street intersection around 4:25 pm on October 16, when the vehicle struck the flagpole.

No injuries were reported, and Mr White was given a verbal warning for making an improper turn.

Last week Mr Lydem had been told that a witness reported seeing the truk “fly out toward Trinity Church,” he said on October 18. Police, neighbors, and residents have been on the lookout for the gilt ball since the accident, but it has yet to surface.

This week, however, Mr Lydem is almost certain the ball took at least a short ride after the flagpole was hit.

A friend of Mr Lydem (“a lifelong friend of mine, someone who can definitely be trusted and isn’t pulling my leg about this, but who does not want to be named,” according to Mr Lydem) was in southbound traffic on Main Street last Tuesday afternoon, among those waiting for the tractor-trailer to make its way through the intersection. Mr Lydem’s friend said the vehicle was taking a left off Church Hill Road, navigating through the intersection by going to the left of the flagpole, when the tractor-trailer hit the landmark. The flagpole’s truk, the friend said, then dropped into the car carrier.

“It’s quite possible,” Mr Lydem said. “The truk may have just dropped straight down, and landed in the back of the truck.

“The driver of the truck pulled over on Main Street after he hit the flagpole, so the truk may have been in the back of the truck then, it could have rolled right off, or it could have rolled off the trailer at another point,” he said. “We just don’t know.”

Mr Lydem spoke with Mr White in the days after the accident.

“He said he’s been driving for 37 years, and this is the first time anything like this has happened to him,” said Mr Lydem. “He’s flabbergasted. It was a momentary lapse on his part, he said. He just doesn’t know how this happened. He was very apologetic.”

While debris at the base of the flagpole and a bent marker sign were both immediately apparent following the late afternoon incident, it wasn’t until after sunset that additional damage became obvious. The lights on the flagpole had also been knocked askew during the incident, leaving one spotlight facing traffic as drivers approached the historic landmark while driving up Church Hill Road Tuesday evening. In addition, the spotlights that illuminated the flag were not functioning that evening.

By 8:30 Tuesday night, two employees of Newtown Public Works had been dispatched to alleviate the lighting issue. While they were unable to get the spotlights to illuminate the flag again that evening, the team was able to shift the one spotlight that had been creating sight issues for Church Hill Road drivers for a few hours.

Burns Electric took care of the additional electrical issues the following day.

“I use private contractors for almost everything when it comes to the flagpole,” said Mr Lydem. “The town takes care of changing bulbs for me, but everything else is contracted out.”

The state does not own the flagpole, even though it is positioned in the center of Route 25, a state road.

“The town bought and paid for the flagpole in 1950,” said Mr Lydem. “That’s our responsibility.”

A steeplejack will have to be hired to replace the truk. A new one has been ordered, said Mr Lydem. He plans to reach out to Valley Restoration, the father and sons team from Torrington who repainted the flagpole and gilded the truk most recently in 2010.

As far as the dent in the flagpole that was left about eight feet above ground level when Mr White’s truck hit the pole last week, Mr Lydem is not sure how that will be fixed.

“I’ll be asking the steeplejacks about that,” he said. “I don’t know if that can be [filled in with Bondo] or what. I’ve never had anything like this.”

The last time Mr Lydem needed to consider structural repairs to the flagpole was 1993, following a fatal car accident.

“We had a hole in the bottom of the pole, and that’s when the additional steel was put around the base. It strengthened that a little bit more,” he said.

By the time all repairs are done this time, costs could run a few thousand dollars.

Renovations to the flagpole are usually funded through the efforts of the retired Newtown Police Department lieutenant, who appointed himself unofficial caretaker of the flagpole in 1983. Newtown Lions Club annually makes a donation toward the upkeep of the flagpole and its flags. He is hoping insurance will cover the costs of repairs.

“At this point my fund is at a level where … it will cover these damages,” said Mr Lydem. The upcoming repairs “will certainly deplete it some, but I’m not too worried.”

The current flagpole is 100 feet tall, including 11 feet that is buried below the surface. It weighs, according to Town Historian Dan Cruson’s A Mosaic of Newtown History, more than 2½ tons. The flagpole was installed January 23, 1950, replacing three previous wooden flagpoles.

Anyone who has information on where the missing Main Street flagpole truk is located, or who finds it themselves, can contact Mr Lydem at 203-426-5495 or The Newtown Bee at 203-426-3141. If found, the ball can also be dropped off at The Bee’s office at 5 Church Hill Road. Newtown Pizza Palace co-owner Dila Dushku announced on Wednesday that she will serve up dinner for two at her Church Hill Road eatery for the person who returned the truk.

Officer Adam Greco is the investigating officer on the October 16 incident. Any additional information or eyewitness accounts can be reported to him at 203-426-5841 or adam.greco@newtown-ct.gov.