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Maybe not so grand, but they’re sticking with the town flag

Posted on September 6, 2007 by Staff

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

It isn’t all that old. Except in a few places, it’s not so high flying. And if you ask local artists, it isn’t all that grand. But on Tuesday, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to keep the town flag as it is.

The fact that the town has a flag is not all that well known. Unlike Chapel Hill, which redesigned its flag several years ago and uses it extensively, the most visible evidence of Carrboro’s flag is at Town Hall, where it rests curled and obscured behind the Board of Aldermen at their meetings.

It wasn’t until the town got a request from Carrboro High School to fly a copy of the flag over the school — and then, shortly thereafter, a request by representatives of Winmore to place one at the entrance to that subdivision — that a review of the design came up.

At its meeting Tuesday at Town Hall, aldermen briefly studied whether to keep the current design or look for something new.

The design features a white background with a seal in the middle with Town Hall, formerly the old Carrboro School, and the date of the chartering of Carrboro — March 3, 1911 — over it. The seal includes the words “Town of Carrboro” and “North Carolina.”

The aldermen’s debate — such as it was — yielded one sentimental moment, when Jacquie Gist and Joal Hall Broun, the board’s longest-serving members got up and unfurled the flag behind them.

“It’s one of those rare things Joal and I agree on,” Gist said. “We love our flag. We defend our flag.”

Hall said people could drop the gold fringe if they wanted, but the flag should stay the same. The schoolhouse, she said, is emblematic of Carrboro.

While it has a strong sentimental value, members of the town’s arts community, many of whom didn’t know the town even had a flag, said it could be a lot better.

“I’m sorry; it just doesn’t look like our town,” poster artist Ron Liberti, who recently served on the town’s arts committee, said. With all of the artists in town, he said, the imagery could be a lot more descriptive of Carrboro.

“I’d like to see something more going on,” Liberti said.

Jackie Helvey, a member of the town arts committee, said the bright orange and blue made it a little hard to look at.

And while she doesn’t object to it having Town Hall on it, the drawing, she said, could be a little more realistic.

“I’d like to see something more contemporary, but not sure what,” she said.

Got an idea for the town flag? Drop us a line and let us know what you think it should look like. Write to editor@carrborocitizen.com

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