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Flag proposal stirs liability concerns
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer INVERNESS -- There are 44 days until Sept. 11, and Mary-Ann Virgilio is growing anxious. Virgilio's 10-member committee has been working for months on a plan to line Main Street with 114 American flags this fall. The last flag would rise Sept. 11 in honor of those who died in last year's terrorist attacks.
But the committee still needs the blessing of the Inverness City Council. Without it, neither Florida Power nor the state Department of Transportation will allow Virgilio's group to hang anything from the light poles along Main Street from County Road 591 S to State Road 44 E. Gaining the council's approval could be a challenge. While some Inverness officials applaud the project, others worry about burdening the city with extra work or liability if something goes wrong. "It's just not as simple as what people visualize," City Manager Frank DiGiovanni said. "If a flag dislodges and causes an accident, you've got to be cognizant of what you're exposing the citizens to. I don't see us doing that casually." At this point it is unclear if Virgilio will get the council's support -- and if she will get it in time to order the flags, buy the brackets and have everything in place by Sept. 11. "That's all we wanted to do was have them up for Sept. 11," Virgilio said. "We just wanted to make sure they were up for this one special time." City staffers have been researching the liability issues for weeks, in between working on next year's budget and other time-consuming projects, DiGiovanni said. The flag project could come before City Council for a vote as soon as Aug. 6, he said. "We're overloaded here," DiGiovanni said, acknowledging that the city had received Virgilio's detailed proposal in June. "This is something that gets fit in with the other projects that are going on." In the meantime, the project has drawn support from state Rep. Nancy Argenziano and even Gov. Jeb Bush, who called council president John Sullivan at home Sunday to offer his help with any DOT red tape. "I don't know why it wouldn't go forward," Sullivan said. "I think the whole concept is a good concept. We just want to be sure to protect the city every way we can, with the liability questions and who's going to maintain it." Although Mayor Joyce Rogers also supports the project, other council members have raised concerns. It would be the city, not Virgilio's committee, facing the lawsuits if something went wrong, council member Jacquie Hepfer said. "God forbid one blew down and caused a wreck," Hepfer said. "They're not going to call the Virgilios or the Rotary Club or the St. Pete Times. They're going to come to the city of Inverness." The city would have to sign a seven-page agreement drafted by Florida Powerexempting the company from liability related to the project. Under the agreement, the contractor working on the poles must have $1-million in employer's liability insurance, $5-million in commercial general liability insurance and $5-million in automobile liability insurance. Stucco contractor Scott Adams, who has volunteered his workers and trucks to place the flags on the power poles, did a double-take. "I'll be liable for the people and we'll properly do everything," Adams said. "But the city needs to take some of the responsibility, too. I don't want to end up being owned by the city." DiGiovanni is also asking the School Board to accept liability for the flag poles that would be fashioned at WTI. All this talk of liability has surprised Bud Kramer, the Vietnam War veteran who organized a similar flag project last fall along U.S. 19 in Crystal River. "Our city manager and City Council (in Crystal River) followed right through with this," Kramer said. "There are times where you can't worry about the petty stuff. You've just got to do it. "We had Christmas decorations up during the holidays, and you have the same liability there that you would have with the flags up," he added. DiGiovanni sees a few differences, however. Much of the liability for the Christmas decorations in Inverness falls on Clark Sales Display, the Tavares company that owns and installs the decorations on the light poles, he said. And unlike Christmas decorations, DiGiovanni said, the flags would be up during the hurricane season. "It's sort of akin to a skateboard park," DiGiovanni said. "It's not the cost to do it upfront. What you're forced to look at is the potential exposure down the line, and you've got to make judgment calls." Virgilio's group plans to leave the flags up for a few days at a time around certain holidays, such as Memorial Day, Flag Day, Veterans Day and Labor Day. That leads to council member Dick Kaufman's question: Who will keep the project going? "The overall concept is excellent but I just don't think it will work," Kaufman said. "The people who are helping now will find other things to get involved with, and they'll feel like the city should carry this on." "This has nothing to do with patriotism, as far as I'm concerned," Kaufman added. "It's just a practical thing in the operation of the city." -- Bridget Hall Grumet can be reached at 860-7303 or bhall@sptimes.com.
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