EASTHAMPTON — Dozens of Easthampton residents filed into the Easthampton High School auditorium on Monday night for discussions on the U.S. flag over Nashawannuck Pond amid shifting reasons from the mayor’s office for calling for it to be taken down. The Parks and Recreation Commission, which held the meeting, did not make a decision regarding the fate of the flag, but voted at the beginning of the meeting to send the issue on to the City Council.

The meeting was initially scheduled for Nov. 20, but had to be postponed and moved to the high school due to overwhelming interest and a lack of space. While the agenda item regarding the flag was ultimately passed on to the council, the meeting offered members of the public the opportunity to express their thoughts and concerns about the matter.

Asked by an audience member why the Parks and Recreation Commission voted to send the issue to the City Council, commission Chair Andrew Hunter said, “based on the information we have, we have asked the City Council to get involved.”

Hunter emphasized that the flag being flown over Nashawannuck Pond is an endeavor by private citizens, and that the Parks and Recreation Commission has had “zero to do with” it.

Following the vote to pass on the matter of the flag, former Easthampton Mayor Michael Tautznik gave a brief presentation on the history of the flag flying over the pond and his correspondence with city officials regarding its removal, which was obtained by the Gazette.

Tautznik explained that the flag was put up over the pond following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks as a memorial by a group of private citizens. Tautznik, who was mayor at the time, was involved in the process of getting the flag installed there, and has remained involved since then. On one side of the pond, the line on which the flag was hung was anchored on private land. On the other, the line was anchored in the city’s Brookside Cemetery with approval from the former Cemetery Commission, which preceded the current Parks and Recreation Commission.

The flag has gone up around Memorial Day and come down after Veterans Day each year since.

Tautznik also requested that the Parks and Recreation Commission vote to affirm the right of volunteers to continue to attach the line on the city’s cemetery property, but this action was not taken by the commission.

On Nov. 4, Parks and Recreation Director John Mason alerted Tautznik to an email from current Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle’s office notifying him that LaChapelle was requesting the removal of the flag and its anchors.

The email, sent by LaChapelle’s executive assistant, states that “this is not permitted by any city entity that we are aware of,” referring to the flag hanging over the pond.

In response, Tautznik then sent a letter to the Parks and Recreation Commission “seeking affirmation for the continued anchoring of the suspended cable supporting the American Flag on Nashawannuck Pond.”

“No one from the city had ever reached out to us about not having the so-called permission,” Tautznik said.

LaChapelle responded with a letter stating that, “While we were bringing up all city displays of the American flag to the U.S. Federal Flag Code… I realized that the flag hanging over the pond was not in compliance with the Code. I instructed the Parks & Recreation Department to remove the flag and cable after Veterans Day.”

“Now, that letter no longer cites this unknown permission issue,” Tautznik said. “The issue now cited by the Mayor is that the flag isn’t properly illuminated during the hours of darkness.”

Tautznik then noted, as several other community members later stated, that “the flag hanging outside the mayor’s office and several other public flags in Easthampton are also not illuminated.”

Tautznik and other volunteers involved in hanging the flag over the pond have drafted an initial lighting plan, which was shared with the Gazette, to address the cited Flag Code issue, but did not present it at Monday’s meeting because the issue had been sent on to the City Council.

LaChapelle was not present at Monday night’s meeting, and did not respond immediately for comment on Tuesday morning.

Residents speak their minds

Some Easthampton residents present at the meeting voiced their frustrations that the flag discussion was being sent to the City Council and that LaChapelle was not present at the meeting. Several mentioned that the Flag Code cited by the mayor as the reason for the flag’s removal simply puts forth suggestions of how the flag “should” be flown. Others spoke to their relationships with the flag and the Easthampton community.

About a dozen citizens spoke out in support of keeping the flag over the pond, including Kevin Miller, commander of the American Legion of Easthampton, Paul Nowak, chair of the Nashawannuck Pond Steering Committee, and several local veterans.

Miller reported that the American Legion of Easthampton “voted that the flag remain over the pond during the set period” at their last meeting. Miller stated that, with regards to the “illumination problem,” the flag outside of City Hall “which has a light below it but is not lit, that should be lowered and raised every morning,” per the Flag Code.

Similarly, Nowak said that the Nashawannuck Pond Steering Committee is “in total favor of the flag flying over the pond.”

“It’s the icon of the city of Easthampton,” Nowak said.

Cathy Wauczinski, chair of the Easthampton Republican City Committee, said that “as a committee, we would be very disappointed in the city to see that they did not value the flag sufficiently and continue to fly it as it has been flown for so long.”

Wauczinski also asserted that the Parks and Recreation Commission’s handling of the Nov. 20 meeting that was postponed “may have violated Open Meeting Law” because “people waiting online were not informed” of what was happening when the meeting was postponed, and because it was “unclear” what happened with the rest of that meeting’s agenda.

Hunter responded that the commission was “having communication issues in the room” but that “we did actually announce online that the meeting had been postponed” because the number of people in the room presented a fire hazard. Hunter added that the rest of that night’s agenda was pushed off to a future meeting.

Easthampton resident Bonnie Harrison spoke to her experience as part of a family with many veterans, saying, “I was raised to believe that [the flag] was a symbol of our liberty, and now that symbol wants to be removed because it doesn’t have a light.”

Another resident, Darlene Orvieto, recalled taking her children on a paddle boat ride on Nashawannuck Pond.

“The most magical part was going right underneath the flag,” Orvieto said. “It was a beautiful thing, and it gave me an opportunity to teach, to educate them about what that flag means for us.”

Resident Donovan Lee offered a dissenting voice, stating that “as a veteran of the United States Army, I have no problem with the flag being taken down permanently,” adding that “if it is a memorial, it’s pretty ambiguous at best,” as Lee had never heard that the flag was meant to be a memorial “before all of 15 minutes ago” despite having lived in Easthampton for “over half a decade.”

“I just want to say that veterans aren’t a monolith that unanimously support this flag,” Lee said. “As a veteran, I have no problem with it coming down.”

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.