Chelmsford realty group receives violation for too many American flags

CHELMSFORD, Mass. — The 200 flags in front of Laer Realty on Chelmsford Street got some unwanted attention after Realtor Jon Crandall and his 11-year-old daughter put them in over Memorial Day Weekend.

The Town of Chelmsford considered them “excessive” and asked for some of them to be taken down.

“She was amazed, ‘dad, we did all that in a half an hour,’ it was amazing. A little tiny thing meant so much,” Crandall told Boston 25 News of when he and his daughter put the flags out.

But for Chelmsford's Building Inspector, it meant something different, according to the town's by-laws.

Crandall arrived to find this violation notice at his office early Friday morning, stating the business had excessive flags.

“Two-hundred certainly doesn't seem excessive to me. And it looks beautiful and I'd like to add more to it to be honest with you,” said Crandall.

And that's exactly what Laer Realty did.

“If you look in our town right now going down the center, every telephone pole has an American flag hanging from it, so it's not like we don't embrace it, so I'm not sure what's going on,” Realtor Robin Sendelbach said.

Town Manager Paul Cohen says the building enforcement officer is just following the town's strict signage by-laws, which prohibit the use of flags in connection with commercial promotion.

“This isn't anti-flag, anti-American, in fact the building enforcement officer, he's a former Marine,” Cohen explained.

He says the town even recently issued violations for churches that placed flags on their property.

“The code prohibits the use in commercial promotion and I think the other one is it could be a distraction and safety issue, it's a pretty busy intersection,” he elaborated.

The town requested the business take some flags down, but Crandall doesn't see that happening any time soon.

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“For all the people that have sacrificed so much and all the soldiers and the people in the branches of the military that have given their all for us to be here freely, just to me, it's insulting to take them down,” he said.

Laer's CEO says she will pay any fines the town imposes, but she will not be taking the flags down.

Cox Media Group