American Flag: Tribute Or Eyesore?

Ever since his friend died in Iraq while in the Navy, Stephen Berry has erected an American flag around Memorial Day that he keeps up until fall. For a number of years, that was in Exeter, where he was living. Now living on Bissel Cove, this year Berry erected a flag on the large rock that sits a couple dozen yards offshore. Not everyone is happy about it.

Last week the North Kingstown police were asking about it, having received complaints. The state Department of Environmental Management also received complaints. An DEM officer came out Thursday to talk to residents and try to mediate a resolution.

Strictly speaking, acknowledged DEM’s enforcement chief Kurt Blanchard, the flag is on state property and doesn’t belong there.

No one is allowed to put any kind of permanent structure below the mean high water line without a permit from the Coastal Resources Management Council, Blanchard said. This, however, is just a pole in a rock, he said.

“It’s not a hazard to navigation, it’s not an environmental hazard, and it’s not a permanent structure,” he explained.

Rather, Blanchard said, it is a memorial, like those that appear on the side of the road after a car accident. He said his officers would not act to remove the flag.

“I kind of made a conscious decision to raise a flag every Memorial Day, in honor of [my friend], in conspicuous places,” said Berry. “There’s one down by Rome Point that’s been there since 2001. We put it up in the spring and take it down in winter.”

The first flag he put on the rock in Bissel Cove was smaller and fell down during a storm, so he erected a larger flag (it’s the size of a flag you’d have outside your house). He drilled a hole in the rock so the flag pole would be secure. He also put up a pirate flag, which he said was a flag used by the Navy Seals. Both are illuminated at night by a solar light he supplied. Because of the complaints, Berry has decided to take down the pirate flag. Not the American flag however.

“This is an American flag on American soil,” Berry said.