Ya know, you people complain about gov't waste. Now you're going to contact the Public Works Director to change a light bulb. What is wrong with you??

Mark,

When you contacted the town, did you use the Citizen Request System online? In case you didn't, here's the link:

http://www.townofmanchester.org/manager/public/public_entry.cfm

But if you did use the Citizen Request System and didn't receive a response, let me know.

Catastrophi, this site is about solving non-emergency problems. It's not political, nor is related to people's concerns about taxes. The town pays a public works director and a public works staff in order to handle exactly these kinds of problems. Helping to identify issues like this is exactly the purpose of the JI/SeeClickFix partnership, as well as the town's Citizen Request System - which many towns don't even offer.

I'm happy to help connect Mark to the right people.

The Town's Building Maintenance staff is working on this today. If they don't need any specialized replacement parts, it should be working tonight.

That's excellent...

Well I called the town and talked to someone in Mark Carlino office. Again I got the run around. I was told it could be Carter Chevrolets responability or the states. But to this day the American flag is flying at night with out being lite up. Shame

Hi Mark,

I hadn't forgotten about this. As I understand it, another flag closer to Middle Turnpike is now appropriately lit, and the lights for the flag you were referring to were being evaluated for their repair/replacement a few weeks ago.

I took a drive down there and realized there's a flag next to the car dealer that isn't lit, and a larger flag in front of the nearby school. I've seen staff members taking that school flag down if the weather is bad, but the one near the dealership isn't getting the same attention, to my knowledge.

Have you seen any lighting for the school flag?

Visited again on Saturday and saw that the school flag was not flying after dark but the flag at the corner was still up, unlit. I'll stop by the dealer today to see if I can speak with the manager.

By the way, here's a pretty good link to info on flag etiquette:

http://www.usflag.org/flagetiquette.html

Mark,

It looks to me like there are lights embedded into the concrete below the flag on either side of the pole. There are some low scrub plantings around them that could be trimmed, but the lights themselves appear to have condensation inside. They're fairly large lights, probably 8-inches across.

I'm guessing that the way they were made - embedded into concrete - is making them expensive to repair. They are only a few feet from the curb and likely are within the town's right of way, but that doesn't mean they don't belong to the property owner. They're closed on Sundays but the topic is worth discussing in print, particularly for Veterans Day coming up.

Also, there are flags all over the street - 3 at the corners of Main and Middle Tpke., another two in the park, and a bunch of others hanging from street lights into the road. I don't know how much care all these flags are getting but when you have so many I can't imagine there's enough staff to care of them all.

I spoke to Public Works today and found out that there are specialized replacement parts needed, which are on order.

Excellent!

So that belongs to the town and not the car dealer?

In the meantime, it would be appropriate to take the flag down. Frankly, there are about 100 US flags on Main Street already. If the lights are expensive to repair, why not just punt. There's a school with an even higher flag pole only about 200 feet away.

Great news the town fixed all the lights under the flags at the end of main st. It took a couple of days and they did an outstanding job. Thanks for all your help.

Hey that's great. I'm glad we could help and thank you for posting the issue. The town's actually been great about getting things done once they're reported. I'll put a short item in the paper today but likely will write more for Monday's paper. Would you mind giving me a call today sometime after noon? 860-646-0500 x305
Thanks!

The town took care of the problem. They did an outstanding job.