Clearwater City Council to discuss American flag removal

[stephanie]

WT??

By Mike Brassfield, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Aug 03, 2009 09:54 AM

CLEARWATER — The Clearwater City Council plans to discuss the removal of several American flags, an act that has drawn widespread ire, during a work session this morning.

Some council members are expected to suggest that at least some of the flagpoles be put back up.

Kevin Dunbar, Clearwater's parks and recreation director, ordered the removal of 13 flagpoles from across the city last week. He said budget cuts made it impossible to properly care for the flags.

So Dunbar had city workers pull the poles out of the ground. The last flagpoles were removed Friday.

City Council members and Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard were never consulted before the removal.

Public reaction to news of the flag removal has been heavy and harsh. After the St. Petersburg Times posted the story on tampabay.com Friday, over 260 readers posted comments, with several commenters calling for city officials to be summarily fired.

Dunbar said the flagpoles were removed only at several facilities controlled by the parks and recreation department — the flag still flies at City Hall, for instance — and only if the flag was on site for display purposes only.

A flagpole remained at the E.C. Moore Complex because during softball tournaments "we play the national anthem," Dunbar said last week, but flagpoles were removed from a nature park and from Sand Key Bay Park.

the whole article and comments...
http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgo...cle1024279.ece

[Noir]

Just by random chance I watched a show not too long ago about the men and women who's job it is to go around the UK making sure that concil flags are in good order ect. And it was surprisingly expensive to enSure they where.

I guess when folk are looking to make cuts to their budget little things like this are easy to carry out and ensure savings. The only question that then remains is 'is it right the the flag budget is cut, or should other budgets be cut'

Personally I would rather the flag budget is cut, bur I know how much you guys love that flag.

[stephanie]

they should get rid of Kevin Dunbar who ordered this, there would be a cut in the budget right there..

there was a few choice comments with article..