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Veteran groups face issue with flagpole size

‘Fall zone’ requirement complicates plans

Two local veterans groups working to rehabilitate military monuments in the county face an ironic potential problem with their latest project site, a triangular grass median bounded by Bryant, East Southey and Tennyson avenues in Garden Heights.

The flagpole there is too tall, but fixing the issue might require the groups to make it too small.

The matter is up in the air for now, as city solicitor Dan Stants looks into who owns the small property and what rules may apply to the pole, depending, perhaps, on that ownership.

The pole’s height, between 60 and 80 feet, frequently places flags into the path of high winds, which tend to tear them up and wrap the rope that holds them around the pole.

That means that when it’s time to replace the flag, the city’s fire department may need to be summoned with a ladder truck, so a firefighter can unwrap the line, said Ken Hollen, former president of the Central Pennsylvania National Guard and Veterans Association, which is working on the Garden Heights project with the Blair County War Veterans Council.

Hollen would like to cut the flagpole down to 25 feet, then reinstall a top and refit it with a rope and pulley or maybe replace the pole with a new, much shorter one.But an adopt-a-median policy approved by City Council in 2017 could foil those plans, as it requires anyone looking to place flagpoles on city property to make them short enough so if they were half again as tall, they wouldn’t fall into a vulnerable area like a street, a driveway or a yard or into a structure like a house.

It’s expressed in a requirement for a “fall zone” radius that is 1.5 times as long as the pole’s height.

Given that the base of the pole in Garden Heights is about 4 feet from East Southey and Bryant avenues, that would mean the maximum height of a new pole would be about 2.6 feet — not even waist high.

If the owner of the ground is not the city but the War Veterans Council or some other organization, that policy might not apply, officials suggested.

But zoning law probably would, Stants said.

The veterans have checked records in the Blair County Courhouse, but there are none on the ownership of the property, said Lloyd Peck, War Veterans Council commander.

The council would be willing to take ownership to simplify the project, Peck said.

“Everything is in gray areas,” Hollen said.

The monument itself is a stone obelisk with rectangular insets with names in relief of Garden Heights residents who served in World War II.

The obelisk is surrounded by four large shrubs.

The groups plan to sandblast or steam clean and repoint the stone, replace the insets — the names are comprised of Masonite, which deteriorates easily — with engraved granite tablets, replace the shrubs with other landscaping elements, build up the median itself to make up for relative height lost to street repaving and build an asphalt curb around it all to prevent vehicle encroachment.

The group has estimated the cost at $6,800, but that could change significantly, Hollen said.

The monument was built around 1943 by the Woodrow Wilson Civic Association and dedicated in 1958, according to people who attended a project announcement at the site Wednesday.

Twenty years ago, neighborhood residents Donald and Dorothy Cruse spruced up the plaques with paint and replaced the cracked glass panes that protected them with Plexiglas, said their daughter Dawn Keith, who also lives in the neighborhood.

Neighbor Mike Green regularly cuts the grass on the plot, Keith said.

The vets’ groups also are planning to rehabilitate a double monument at Sunbrook Manor in Duncansville after completing the Garden Heights project, Hollen said.

Vandals recently cut down one of the multiple flagpoles there, Hollen said.

The groups are looking for donations to fund their work.

The Veterans Association is approved to receive tax-deductible contributions through the Central Pennsylvania Community Foundation.

Checks can be sent to the CPNG&VA, c/o Steve Nader, 1820 Timberline Drive Ext., Altoona, PA 16601 or to the BCWVC, c/o Lloyd Peck, 2000 Pleasant Valley Blvd., Altoona, PA 16602.

“We’ll take all the donations we can get,” Hollen said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.

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