One of the largest American flags in the state of Oregon is located in Prineville, atop a 120-foot cell tower. Right now, it is in danger of coming down. The flag normally is maintained by a nonprofit organization, Friends of the Flag, also based in Prineville. The 30-by-50-foot flag costs $1,300 and lasts for six months, Crook County Commissioner Seth Crawford told The Bulletin.
Crawford said, “We had a grant for about $5,000 that paid for the flags originally, but we’ve gone through all of that. We’ve sent a mailer out to everybody in Crook County asking for donations. Whatever you can do, we appreciate it … If we got $10 from every citizen in the county, we’d be set for the next 10 years, reported The Bulletin.
The cell pole originally was constructed for AT&T in 2010, after completing the application procedure. During the process, residents who considered the new tower to be unsightly successfully lobbied for disguising it as a flagpole. John Ferguson, a local Navy veteran, told The Bulletin, “Everybody likes it. I know that people that commute out of town to work, they like seeing it when they come home at night.”
AT&T already has committed to paying the electric bill for the necessary lights every year, which ends up being nearly $1,000.
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