GILROY
– The flag display planned for downtown this Veterans Day will
have just one of the anticipated 100 flags. The Monterey Street
Flag Project, which was expected to bring 100 flags to Monterey
Street between First and Tenth streets by Veterans Day, is still
$6,000 and three weeks from completion.
GILROY – The flag display planned for downtown this Veterans Day will have just one of the anticipated 100 flags. The Monterey Street Flag Project, which was expected to bring 100 flags to Monterey Street between First and Tenth streets by Veterans Day, is still $6,000 and three weeks from completion.
“We’re a little disappointed,” said Tim Day, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce. “We really wanted to have it ready for (Nov.) 11th, but sometimes things take a little bit longer than you’d hoped.”
Gilroy veterans will still place one flag on the corner of Monterey and Sixth streets in front of Old City Hall.
The traditional ceremony for Gilroy’s veterans will begin at 11 a.m. Tuesday outside the 47 West Sixth St. building. Mayor Tom Springer, Santa Clara County District 1 Supervisor Don Gage and Councilman Bob Dillon will be among the speakers at the ceremony, said Wayne Cegelske, chaplain of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6309. The Gilroy High School Marching Band will perform and the Boy Scouts of America will lead the pledge of allegiance.
Following the ceremony, around noon, the group will head to Old City Hall, where Boy Scout Troop 708 will display one flag. Once the Monterey Street Flag Project is completed, the troop will be responsible for placing the flags each patriotic holiday.
Day said that all 100 flags should be flying by Presidents Day in February.
The flagpoles and flags have been purchased and future maintenance costs will be taken care of by the city and Chamber of Commerce, Day said.
Still needed are reinforced holes drilled in the Monterey Street sidewalks. The 12-foot flagpoles flying 3-by-5-feet flags will line the street on patriotic holidays.
The Exchange Club of Gilroy is spearheading a community-wide effort to bring flags back to downtown after a decade has generated $10,000 so far, but $6,000 is still needed.
“There’s been a number of people that have pitched in for the funding of the project, but we still need more funds,” Day said. “The drilling of the holes is costing us more than we thought.”
The holes will cost about $7,000, and the Exchange Club is putting the contract out to bid to try and get the best price possible. Drilling and reinforcing the holes should take a total of three weeks, Day said.
While the project was not completed as soon as hoped, it has truly been a community effort, Day said.
“We’ve had a number of organizations that came to the plate,” Day said.
The City of Gilroy and Chamber of Commerce have been major contributors, Day said. The Gilroy Economic Development Corporation, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Exchange Club, Gilroy Downtown Development Corporation and The Dispatch were also early contributors.
Maintenance of the project, including replacing worn flags, will be funded with two $500 annual pledges from the city and Chamber of Commerce.
The problem of safely storing the 100 flags and flagpoles could also soon be solved.
Bracco Towing owner Dion Bracco is in the process of arranging for storage of the flags and flagpoles between holidays. The items are currently in a Boy Scout troop leader’s home.
Bracco, who is on the project’s committee, is planning to purchase a 10- or 12-foot trailer that he would keep at his 6730 Monterey St. business. He is asking several other businesses to contribute to purchasing the $3,000 trailer.
Another memorial flag project, the Gilroy Veterans Flagpole Fund, is also in need of donations to raise the last $20,000 of the $70,000 project.
The Gilroy veterans started the fund four years ago to raise five flags in DeBell Uvas Creek Preserve honoring veterans in Gilroy and across the country.
The VFW planned to raise the flags Memorial Day 2004. In order to meet that timeline, Cegelske said, fundraising must be finished by Dec. 15.
“We’re about two-thirds of the way there, we have a little over $50,000,” Cegelske said. Most donations have come from individuals, businesses and associations in Gilroy, Cegelske said.
The memorial will include an American flag on a 60-foot pole, as well as the flags representing the state of California, VFW, American Legion and prisoners of war and missing in action.
For a $200 donation, the VFW is offering to inscribe a brick that will be placed in the memorial with the name of a local veteran or outstanding citizen.
“They don’t necessarily have to be a member of the American Legion or VFW,” Cegelske said. “The person could be any local celebrity, anyone, really.”
There will be room for 20 characters on two lines on the bricks.
On Sunday, representatives from the VFW Post 6309 and American Legion Post 217 held a donation and membership drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in front of Wal-Mart. The veterans handed out several membership and brick inscription applications and sold bumper stickers reading “Support our Troops” and “God Bless America” for $3 each. With donations and the sale of nearly 40 bumper stickers, about $250 was collected for the Veterans Flagpole Fund.
“It went pretty good,” Cegelske said. “Except for the weather.”
To donate or request a brick application, contact Wayne Cegelske at 842-4903.
