Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Run it up the flagpole

Amherst Town Flag draft

A joint meeting of Amherst Historical Commission and the Design Review Board pretty much saluted artist Barry Moser's design proposal incorporating a shield, open book and sheaves of wheat for an official town flag (even though Amherst was never known for wheat harvest) winnowed down from nine variations he submitted.

The only recommendation is to add the date 1759 in a subtle way to the background. The Amherst Select Board --a body not known as flag connoisseurs--will have final approval.

Select Board member Diana Stein first raised the idea for a town flag in June, 2010 and the town encouraged citizen submissions which resulted in 8 designs, but none of them a clear winner. Select Board member Jim Wald contacted renowned artist Barry Moser, who agreed to volunteer his design services.

The flag will hang at the Massachusetts State House in the Great Hall alongside pennants from most cities and towns in Massachusetts . Twenty years ago the state came up with the idea of hanging flags as a means of improving the acoustics in the spacious hall.

Who would have thought state government could be so practical?

And yes, Amherst is the same town that restricts the flying of 29 commemorative Americans flags on 9/11, to once every five years.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's wrong with the Book and Plow? Sheesh.

And you beat me to it -- will it fly in Town only on certain holidays?

Larry Kelley said...

Apparently the plow is hard to render on a flag-like scale, turns out looking more like a guitar.

The town flag in the Great Hall will simply hang 24/7.

The Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce have pledged $500 each to cover extra flags for the town common, police and fire stations, so I suppose they would last a lot longer if you restricted them to certain holidays.

Hey at least they are distinct enough from the Texan or Puerto Rican flag, so that Pat Church will not get confused and tear them down.

Anonymous said...

Looks religious!

Anonymous said...

None of those tacky white stars, red and white stripes. Nothing too American looking. I'm sure a few Amherstites will be unhappy about the absence of hammers, sickles, or red stars.

Anonymous said...

it looks cool and historic

Anonymous said...

"And yes, Amherst is the same town that restricts the flying of 29 commemorative Americans flags on 9/11, to once every five years."

As such, the Police and Fire Department should only fly the town flag once every 5 years.

Anonymous said...

Replace the wheat with corn (maize), beans and squash if one want to represent what's traditionally grown North of Norwottuck....