It took about four hours last Thursday morning to repair a nasty dent in the town’s landmark Main Street flagpole.

The dent — easily a few inches deep and approximately 36 inches off the ground — happened when a truck sideswiped the pole sometime last year. Keeper of the Flagpole Chris Gardner said the impact “caused a substantial dent” on the western side of the 2½-ton steel monument that stands 100 feet tall in the center of the five-legged flagpole intersection of Main Street, Church Hill Road, and West Street.

On April 25, employees of Barzetti Welding in Bethel began repair work by filing away paint from the dent and surrounding area. Dean Faulds, Dan Clarke, and business owner Dave Barzetti did the on-site work.

Police officers, one each from Newtown and Easton, handled traffic management while work was occurring.

Gardner said he didn’t think the steel had been exposed to the sun for 74 years.

“The flagpole was installed on January 23, 1950, and was immediately painted white,” he told The Newtown Bee Thursday afternoon. In addition to his informal role as keeper of the landmark, Gardner is the Senior Borough Burgess and a member of The Flagpole Stewardship Committee. The latter is a small group of volunteers who work together when needed to raise money for The Newtown Flagpole Fund, an endowed account maintained by the Town of Newtown Finance Director.

Once the paint was ground off last week, a steel shell was then welded onto the flagpole, according to Barzetti. The shell was crafted to be as flush as possible, added Gardner, who followed the welding with a fresh coat of white paint on the lower section of the flagpole.

“Hopefully we won’t see the steel again for at least another 74 years,” he said.

The current flagpole, according to notes by the late Town Historical Dan Cruson prepared for Newtown’s tercentennial in 2005, “is set in a hole 12 feet deep and seven feet in diameter. The pole was then placed in a galvanized steel cylinder 21 inches in diameter, which was lowered to a depth of 11 feet and then surrounded by concrete.”

In its history, the flagpole has been hit by many vehicles, most often by drivers who are not paying attention to a 100-foot-tall white pole in the center of the roadway.

While most crashes are slow-speed events, in October 2012 the flagpole was struck hard enough by a tractor-trailer truck that the 16” diameter gilded ball at its top was knocked off its post. Then-Keeper of the Flagpole David Lydem told The Newtown Bee it was the first time since 1993 that the flagpole had been hit hard enough for that to happen.

The driver of the truck was uninjured. The golden ball was never located.

Since December 1996, the flagpole has been on the National Register of Historic Places. It has been a state-sanctioned landmark since 1981.

It has its fans and its detractors. Many love its presence and what it stands for.

In a recent interview with The Newtown Bee, Gardner named the Main Street flagpole among his favorite things about his hometown.

“…there’s nothing like driving on Main Street, coming from the Brookfield side,” he said. “There’s no other color that you can see, especially the time of year when everything is gray and black, and white, but you look at that flagpole and you see that red, white and blue waving in the wind … no matter how many times I pass that, it always makes me smile and brightens my day.

“I love looking at that when I’m coming down the hill.”

The Main Street flagpole’s appearance dates to 1876. To celebrate the nation’s centennial, a two-part flagpole was erected at the location it continues to hold.

That first flagpole, originally called the Liberty Pole, looked like a ship’s mast, and stood at least 70 feet tall. It was, also according to Cruson, “considerably lower than 100 feet, the height of the present pole.”

That first pole, he also noted, “was square hewn” according to tradition.

The pole has been replaced three times: twice by wooden poles (1892 and 1914) and then by a spun steel pole in 1950. The last two poles were 100 feet high. The formal dedication of the town’s new landmark took place on Sunday, February 12, 1950. It was purposely timed to fall on Lincoln’s Birthday.

The repair work last week cost $800, according to Gardner.

"The Borough of Newtown paid for it and the Town of Newtown paid for police coverage," he added. "It was nice that the Borough and Town could work together on this."

Readers who would like to support upkeep of and repairs to the flagpole are invited to contact Chris Gardner at 203-592-1093.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.