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Spring Hill flags fresh again
By ROBERT KING, Times Staff Writer SPRING HILL -- In a week when the American flag -- and pledging allegiance to it -- gained national attention, Hernando County decided to make sure that one of the most visible star-spangled banners flying over the county will always look crisp. The county's Parks and Recreation Department agreed this week to help with the maintenance of the flags flying above the waterfall at the entrance to Spring Hill on a permanent basis. Recently, county officials had heard complaints from some residents about the tattered condition of the American flag flying there. For years, Spring Hill Civic Association volunteers had maintained the three flags flying over the fountain -- the American flag, the flag of Florida and the Spring Hill Civic Association's flag. But the expense of replacing the flags was becoming a burden for the civic association, said Ki Hill, the group's president. Volunteers willing to handle the task of changing the flags were also hard to come by. When the flags atop the poles at the entrance grew ragged recently, the civic association and county officials heard complaints. Hill managed to scrounge up one new flag in the association's stock, but she didn't have anyone to put it up. So the county agreed to help, dispatching a parks and recreation employee to hoist the American flag, along with a new Florida flag provided by the county. A third flag, representing the civic association, will go up as soon as it can be repaired, Hill said. Already, the county has provided help repairing the pump that runs the waterfall, which has been declared a county landmark. The Spring Hill Garden Club maintains the plants, flowers and the Spring Hill sign. The intricacies of flag maintenance are quite familiar to the Parks and Recreation Department, which is responsible for routine replacement of the flags that fly above government offices and parks around the county. And it is a bigger enterprise than one might imagine. Because of the abuse from wind and weather, they must be replaced about every four months, said Pat Fagan, the county's parks and recreation director. A high-quality, 8-by-12-foot American flag -- the typical size for the banners at public places in the county -- costs about $100, Fagan said. A 6-by-10-foot Florida flag runs about $125. The cost of prisoner of war flags, which are also flown at most parks and government buildings, was not available. To maintain the county's flags costs about $8,000 to $10,000 a year, Fagan said. Ed Noll, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10209 in Spring Hill, considers the expense worthwhile. "If it wasn't for that flag, not just the United States, but a lot of other countries would be under a dictatorship," Noll said. Like many others, Noll was outraged this week when a federal appeals court in California ruled that it was unconstitutional for the words "under God" to be included in the Pledge of Allegiance. He is also concerned about a broader loss of respect for the flag, be it by federal judges in California or people in Hernando County who fly a flag until it's in faded shreds. "This is our national symbol," said Noll, who served in the Pacific and European theaters during World War II. "People look at it like it's a rag. They have no respect for it."
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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