Summer Flag Signals A New Season On Main Street

By Andrew Gorosko

On a day that was as clear as clear gets, Newtown Lions Club members, Hook & Ladder volunteer firefighters, resident David Lydem, and town police joined forces to replace the smaller winter flag with the larger summer flag on the Main Street flagpole.

At about 9 am on Saturday, May 19, Hook & Ladder firefighters positioned their aerial ladder truck on the north side of the flagpole, after which firefighters scrambled up the extended ladder to lower the 216-square-foot winter flag and then raise the 600-square-foot summer flag.

Mr Lydem, known as The Keeper of the Flag and Pole, supervised as the smaller flag was lowered and the larger flag was hoisted up the 100-foot-tall flagpole. Because the flagpole is 100 feet tall, the massiveness of the 20-by-30-foot summer flag is not clear until it is seen near the ground in relation to the people handling it.

Mr Lydem, a former Newtown Police Department lieutenant, has been overseeing the changing of the flags since 1983.

Town police stopped traffic as needed at the five-legged intersection of Main Street, Church Hill Road, and West Street as the flag-changing event was underway.

The Lions Club donates funds to ensure that appropriate flags are flown on the flagpole.

The large flag is flown through the three major summer holidays — Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day.