UPDATE: Flags to return in Seminole, Florida. Chief says department will fashion mount solve the problem.
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Apparently there has been a resolution to the controversy in the City of Seminole after a protest yesterday because of an order to remove American flags from fire trucks. The department had been acting on a complaint from a concerned citizen that the way the flags were attached to the rigs did not meet the regulations outlined in the U.S. Code for the proper display of the flag. The flags are expected to be back on the fire trucks by the end of the week.
Chief George Bessler told Bay News 9 on Monday proper flag mounts have been ordered and a local company will supply proper flags for the engines to fly the flags by the end of the week.
The order to remove the flags came from Bessler after the department received a complaint from a community member about flag placement on the fire engines.
He’s glad his firefighters are getting support on this, glad the community is hearing about how to properly respect the flag, and that people are also raising concerns…
“They should be asking questions when the government makes decisions,”
“You can’t just go out and buy flag mounts for fire engines at a local store but what you can do is fabricate them. So we have a shop fabricating them as we speak — stainless steel flag holders.”
The department will also start using a local vendor that sells American-made flags.
The City of Seminole has never been opposed to flying the U.S. flag on our vehicles as long as long as it met code,” explained Fire Chief George Bessler.
Bessler spent much of Monday responding to phone calls and email. Bessler said most people “…understand what the actual issue was, that we’re not opposed to flying the flag but it really had to do with making sure that we were respectful.”
Anne Lindberg, Tampa Bay Times:
The flags will likely be mounted on the trucks by the end of this week. Seminole City Manager Frank Edmunds said the city’s maintenance department is making clamps so the flag can be fixed to the right front fender, as the U.S. Flag Code dictates.
“We’ve never taken the position that we do not want flags,” Edmunds said Monday. But “if we’re going to (display them), we’re going to do it right.”
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