Dispute over ‘Honor and Remember’ flag erupts at city council meeting

Leroy Paige of Sumpter Township is the Michigan Chapter Director of Honor and Remember and his township is steadfastly behind his flag project. It has promised to fly the flag during the Month of May.
On May 2, Paige spoke during the Citizens Comments part of the agenda at the beginning of the regular Belleville City Council meeting. Paige said he had tried to be on the regular agenda to discuss Honor and Remember, but was not put on the agenda.
His aim is to get his Honor and Remember flag to fly over the Veterans Memorial in Belleville, which the council has to approve.
Paige said the Honor and Remember flag, to honor veterans who gave the ultimate sacrifice, has been enthusiastically received in 22 other states over the last four years. He said it started in the tri-community over the last few years.
He said he brought a proclamation from Gov. Rick Snyder which he assumed was in the council’s meeting packet.
Paige said he wanted the council to issue a proclamation of its own or read into the council minutes the names of the 51 heroes listed on the Veterans Memorial in Horizon Park.
“It grieves me as the manager of Honor and Remember the misinformation that was given,” he said referring to a letter, sanctioned by the local VFW and PLAV, from Cornell Anton in last week’s Independent. Anton said the American Flag was the proper flag to fly for veterans, since that’s the flag they fought and died under.
Councilman Tom Fielder said the Honor and Remember flag resembles the Vietnam flag. He said he and Anton and others are working to honor those named on the Memorial and last year they recognized in detail the lives of two men and honored their families. They will do it again during this year’s Memorial Day service with another two families being honored. He said Councilwoman Kim Tindall will put the histories of the fallen into a written presentation for the museum. He also talked about a plaque to put at Belleville High School for those military graduates who died.
“It’s a little disingenuous to say we’re not doing anything,” Councilman Fielder said, adding, “I’m not saying some of your ideas aren’t good.”
Fielder said when Paige made his proposal last year, the issue was the look of the flag and that’s why the council didn’t pass his request then.
Paige said people said the flag looked like a North Korean or North Vietnamese flag from a distance. He said the Stars and Stripes looks a lot like the Union Jack.
He said you can’t look at a flag from a distance, but you have to look at the symbols. Every symbol stands for something, he said.
Paige said he would be at the next council meeting.
City Manager Diana Kollmeyer said the plan was to at least defer the issue until the next meeting [May 16], so they could gather more information.
She said she told him they would like to see his endorsement from the local veterans’ groups and, “To my knowledge, today he does not have that endorsement.”
After Paige left the meeting, Anton said he doesn’t know what he possibly could have misstated in his long letter on the issue. He said there is no animosity involved because both he and Paige are veterans.
But, Anton said he spoke for the VFW and the PLAV.
On May 1, at the Bugles Across America event at the Veterans Memorial, a picture was presented of the Honor and Remember flag flying below the American Flag on a pole at a municipal building in Sumpter Township. Veterans said this does not follow flag protocol.
“If this persists we will withdraw from the Sumpter Fest,” Anton said, referring to the festival held over Memorial Day week end.
Also, if the city decides to fly the flag at the monument, the VFW and PLAV will not appear at events there, he said.
“That’s the flag my buddies died for,” said Anton referring to the American Flag. “We go back farther than 2008,” he said referring to the beginning of the Honor and Remember flag.
Anton said the VFW, American Legion, and PLAV nationally have not accepted the Honor and Remember flag.
Anton spoke of Wounded Warriors and others seeking donations that were not worthy charities and said, “We have to be very careful.
“I’ve never seen a group of guys get so adamant about anything in my life,” Anton said of the Honor and Remember flag.
At the end of the meeting, Anton said he actually came to that night’s meeting just to thank the city for sending the DPS to fix the sewer on his street that his wife drove over and almost fell through.
In other business at the 55-minute meeting, the council:
• Approved the mayor’s appointment of James Chudzinski to a seat on the Downtown Development Authority with a term to expire Dec. 31, 2018;
• Approved the concept of closing High Street for a jazz concert at Horizon Park on a summer week end, but told Maurice Morris that having it on the same night as the Van Buren Township fireworks on June 25 or rain date of June 26, as he suggested, was not a good idea. Also, you can’t see the VBT fireworks from there, anyway. Morris said he used to live in Arlene Arbor in VBT and now flies back and forth to Atlanta. He thought a jazz concert on the lake would be great. He said it would be like in downtown Detroit and there would be ten band members and tables and chairs for the public. The event would be good for families, boaters, and businesses, he said. Members of the audience pointed out that West Columbia Avenue will be torn up by construction for most of the summer and so traffic will be heavy on High Street. Morris will work out another date and details with the city manager;
• Approved Councilman Fielder as another City Bank signatory for the city, along with current signatories Mayor Kerreen Conley and Mayor Pro-Tem Jack Loria, as well as Clerk/Treasurer Lisa Long, who is retiring soon;
• Set the city wide yard sale dates as Sept. 10 and 11, when no permits will be required. There will be places available in Victory Park if a group comes forward to be in charge. Last year the Belleville Area Council for the Arts stepped up at the last minute when no one wanted to be in charge. BACA will not be offended if another group wants the fund raiser, Councilwoman Tindall said;
• Approved an amendment of an easement agreement with Wolverine Pipe Line to include a narrow strip of land that amounts to an acre, owned by the city behind Victoria Commons and Belle Villa that goes all the way to Hull Road. Wolverine will pay the city $16,880 for the expanded easement of that already in place. Building Official Rick Rutherford said if the city didn’t accept the agreement, Wolverine can go through a condemnation procedure;
• Approved $25,083.68 in accounts payable and the following departmental purchases in excess of $500: to Blue Ribbon, $1,367 for hydrant replacement, Water fund; to Election Source, $1,896.33 for election equipment, Election fund; to Firecatt, $4,000 for equipment testing, Fire fund; to Fonality, $1,364 for phone support renewal, General fund; to RJ&J, $2,713 for emergency repair, Water fund; to Van Buren Township, $1,950 for fire fighter academy, Fire fund; and to Western Wayne County Mutual Aid, $550 for Thermal Imager, Fire fund;
• Was informed by Kollmeyer that the proposed budget that was distributed in their packets is a wish list and, “the voice of reason will come later.” Budget discussions began Monday, May 9, at 6 p.m.; and
• Heard Kollmeyer say engineer John Hennessey is available to help until the city finds a new part-time DPS Director. Rutherford has been filling in. He told of a sewer leak on city property on Potter Drive that they dug up the Saturday before the meeting and found an 8-foot cave under Potter Drive. He said when they did the separation of storm and sanitary sewers, they put a 32” pipe in a 42” pipe and the bulkhead failed. It was big enough to swallow a car, he said, and, “It was just dumb luck we caught it.” Otherwise, they would have lost a lot of road. He said they also repaired a sewer in front of the library and found a leaky water pipe there. Also, they tried to do hydrant repair near the school but found a large gas main running right across the water main – right on it. They are sending the bill to DTE. They couldn’t fix the hydrant.