Algood Retiring Flags With Drop Box

The City of Algood has implemented a new flag drop box at Algood City Hall to retire American flags appropriately.

Parks and Recreation Director Roy Phipps said the city had been in talks about providing a flag drop box for the past few years. Phipps said the city has already received and retired 90 flags from the drop box.

“A lot of people don’t have the capability to properly retire flags at home themselves,” Phipps said. “So drop-off boxes at certain places are convenient for people, but we didn’t have anything here locally in town and it’s just a service that we thought we wanted to provide for people.”

Phipps said the city is retiring flags appropriately by following the flag code which includes properly folding the flag and holding a ceremony before burning the flag. Phipps said retiring American flags appropriately is very important to the City of Algood.

“It’s important to me and everyone here,” Phipps said. “That flag represents everything this country stands for. A lot of men and women have served and died under that flag. I was not one of them but I am humbled we are all humbled here by the people who have fought for that flag and what this country stands for, so it’s extremely important to us and extremely important to the residents here who fly those flags. When those flags deteriorate, we wanted a place to properly put those flags to rest. ”

The city will only accept American flags and any official state flags. Phipps said they accept state flags as many people are moving from other states to the Upper Cumberland.

“We are accepting all the state flags because there are a lot of people here from other places,” Phipps said. “And their respective state flag still means something to them. We want to honor that and respect all those as well.”

The flag drop box is a free service to the community. Phipps said the drop box is in the lobby of the city hall.