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WWII vet wants to fly Old Glory SPOTSYFLAGPOLE VIOLATES HOA RULES
Spotsylvania man loses battle to display flag
By DAN TELVOCK
Date published: 10/3/2007
By DAN TELVOCK
Phil Stack is a World War II veteran who cooked cherry pies with dough strips on top. Some of the 170 soldiers in his battalion complained that his biscuits were too hard.
Two sandy black-and-white pictures showing a youthful Stack in his Army uniform sit on a bookcase in the one-story home he shares with his wife of 60 years, Ethel.
Stack, 84, is proud of his service and flies an American flag on a 16-foot pole in his front yard on Winthrop Court in Salem Fields subdivision in Spotsylvania County.
That flagpole is now at the center of a controversy. Eight months after he put up the flagpole, the homeowners association has asked him to take it down. He has until Oct. 16 to comply, or he could be fined.
Stack spent 30 months overseas, earning five battle stars with the 202nd Combat Engineering Battalion, Company B. His discharge certificate states he "can bake bread, pies and other pastries" for men in the field and in the garrison.
"I think I deserve to fly my flag," Stack says, sitting next to a Statue of Liberty tapestry that hangs on a white wall in his dining room.
Wearing a blue hat with a D-Day pin, Stack recalls the landing of his battalion on Omaha Beach five days after that bloody battle. He was silly not to carry a weapon when he was rushing food to soldiers, Stack says.
While he tells war stories, his wife brings out a rusting German Mauser rifle her husband found on a battlefield.
"I wonder how many people were killed with that gun," he says, as his smiling wife holds the rifle, practically in a soldier's stance.
But Stack's mind wanders back to the HOA notice.
"It hurt my feelings," he says.
The display of flags and flagpoles has long been a source of conflict between HOAs and residents. Many HOAs prohibit flagpoles to protect community aesthetics.
Stack says his binder of HOA guidelines doesn't contain any language prohibiting flagpoles.
A law President Bush signed last year that gives a resident in a community association the right to fly a flag doesn't give outright permission to use flagpoles.
Read more stories about Spotsylvania
Date published: 10/3/2007
Most recent reader comments:
Maybe we should look at a few of the facts...
(posted by
janejain
, Oct. 7, 2007 12:14 am)
Mr. Stack was not given options and was treated like a criminal instead of the upstanding citizen and homeowner that he is.
There was NO rule against flagpoles in the documents he received when he bought his home nine months ago. Mr. Stack did not have the option to decide about living in a community where he could not fly the flag in a manner that means so much to him. He has never received an updated copy of any rule stating that flagpoles are prohibited in Salem Fields. They just told him to take it down. He was given no options, offered no other resolution. He has not been treated fairly.
Instead of working with the homeowners, it seems that the managers and the Board just want to police them. It is a real shame. Mr. and Mrs. Stack are nice, wonderful people and good friends of mine. They deserve more respect.
Dont Kill The Messanger
(posted by
, Oct. 5, 2007 10:32 am)
The HOA rep is just that-a rep. They are required to enforce the guidelines-it is part of the job description. This does not mean they agree with it. Choosing not to be identified saves them from harsher criticism that many posters seem ready to dish out, in many cases with out even gathering all facts. The bottom line is that, regardless of personal feelings on the matter, he signed an agreement to follow those guidelines when he moved into the neighborhood. He must, like everyone else, follow the rules.
People move into these communities...
(posted by
bosmom
, Oct. 5, 2007 7:09 am)
for a reason. They want the conformity of it. Everybody has the same tree planted in the same place. If your neighbor doesn't cut his grass, you don't have to confront him, you go to the HOA. You know these things when you buy your house. Whether I, or anyone else, agrees with the rules of this community, is irrelevent. If you make an exception for one person, you've started a landslide. I guess that's why I could never live in a community. I don't like being told what I can do on my own land.
When did Hoa"s become goverments?
(posted by
Ron_C
, Oct. 5, 2007 12:12 am)
Why should a group of busybodies without lives be put in charge of deciding if someone is deserving of having a flagpole after serving our country.
Leave the flagpole, you want to do some good get rid of the tacky 6 foot inflatable pumpkins.
The Rules
(posted by
Einstein
, Oct. 4, 2007 12:14 pm)
An American who served his or her country during a war should not have to break a "rule" like this. It should be respectfully offered to him. Yes, any veteran has earned the right to fly his flag on a pole if he/she choses. Their selfless service to our country has earned them This is not some yahoo who want s to fly a Dale Earnhardt flag. This is a man who put his country first when asked to do so. To be forced to abide by this rule applied by petty bureaucrats worried about property values is an insult.
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