A Massachusetts business had an answer when its town said it had too many U.S. flags in front of its business: It put up some more.
Jon Crandall, an employee at Laer Realty in Chelmsford told Boston CBS affiliate WBZ that when he arrived at work on Friday, there was a note on the door stating that the company had committed a violation last Saturday by sticking 200 flags in the grass outside for Memorial Day.
"[Last] Saturday we came out and we lined this with 200 flags in support of our deceased veterans and all the people who have served,” Crandall told the news station.
But when he went to work Friday, he found the note from the city's building department, "stating we had a violation, a flag violation, excessive flags."
Turns out there is a town bylaw that forbids the use of flags "for commercial promotion."
“This is a commercial establishment located at a busy intersection. It was in the front lawn of that particular property, and in the opinion of our code enforcement officer, the building commissioner, it was a violation,” said Michael McCall, Chelmsford’s assistant town manager.
The town wants the real estate firm to remove some flags and leave up a "reasonable amount."
“We feel this is a patriotic act," said Crandall. "It’s not about our business. It’s about supporting our troops, supporting veterans.”
So instead of taking down flags, they added more, so now there are about 500 of them.
“I think the flags speak for themselves," Crandall said. "I don’t think we need to get into a fight with city hall.”
The realty company usually leaves up the flags from Memorial Day through the Fourth of July, but this year is the only time it's run into problems over them.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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