Selectmen consider American flags on the Avenue
GREENWICH — The Board of Selectmen is considering a plan to fly American flags along Greenwich Avenue, but members said at their Thursday meeting that they need to fit that idea in with other efforts to improve and enhance the downtown area.
“We want to create value and create spirit and create beauty in the downtown at a low cost,” said Alyssa Keleshian, a town resident who is leading the flag effort. “This is very easy to conceivably execute. … Everyone wants the small-town charm, so this is going back to smalltown community charm.”
Under the tentative plan, the flags would be funded by the nonprofit Greenwich Community Projects Fund and would be placed on top of lampposts on the Avenue around Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day.
Keleshian is working on the idea with town resident Sebastian Dostmann. The two were also the driving force behind the successful return of holiday lights to Greenwich Avenue in December.
The flags would continue a tradition from the 1970s and 1980s run by the Chamber of Commerce, Dostmann said.
“We want something that will be fun and vibrant to continue through the rest of the year until the holiday lights make their comeback in the fall,” he said.
First Selectman Fred Camillo said he had the same idea last year and is hoping to add the flags in 2021 “as part of the whole idea of changing the look of Greenwich Avenue.”
There are some logistics that need to be coordinated to make it work, the selectmen said. The Reimagine Greenwich effort, chaired by Selectwoman Lauren Rabin, seeks to establish an advertising policy in the town zoning guidelines that would affect the flag project.
“We want to make sure we’re not running inadvertently afoul of another board or commission with authority here,” Selectperson Jill Oberlander said.
The Reimagine Greenwich committee might use banner ads on the lampposts to fund other improvements downtown, they said. Dostmann said the flags and advertising banners could be on display at the same time.
Under current rules, flags would be allowed, but there could not be notices on the lampposts of the sponsors.
“A flag itself or a banner itself is not the issue,” town Director of Planning and Zoning Katie DeLuca said. “But any advertisement whatsoever or acknowledgment of who funded that is not permitted. If it’s on a ribbon or on a banner that would not be compliant with the zoning regulations. The flag is fine, but putting something that says, ‘Sponsored by X’ would not be.”
But Keleshian said that acknowledging who paid for the flags would be important.
“We are going to go after donors, and donors do need to at least get appreciated for their donation,” she said. “That’s something we have to figure out.”
On the Post Road bridge
American flags are installed annually along the Post Road bridge that connects Cos Cob to Riverside over the Mianus River, an effort started by then-Selectman David Theis. Town residents Joseph and Barbara Havranek have continued the practice since Theis’ death. They purchase the flags, and the Cos Cob Volunteer Fire Company puts them up along the bridge, which was renamed in Theis’ memory, every Memorial Day through Veterans Day.
Camillo noted that tradition in expressing his support for installing flags on Greenwich Avenue, assuring Keleshian and Dostmann that this would “not take forever” to get approved. “I think this is a very good thing,” Camillo said. “Communities across this country love this sort of thing, and Greenwich is no different.”
No decision was made on the flags, but the issue is slated to return, perhaps as soon as the board’s next meeting on March 11.
Valet parking plan
The Board of Selectmen also briefly discussed the possible return of a valet parking program on Greenwich Avenue. During the December holidays, Parking Productions, John Dent Inc. ran a valet service at a cost of $20 per car. Patrons could leave their cars with valets and go shopping or dining on Greenwich Avenue without worrying about feeding parking meters. It also freed up spaces for other parkers on the Avenue.
In the holiday program last year, drivers left their cars at valet stations set up at the horseshoe driveway in front of the Greenwich Senior Center and in front of the J Crew at Greenwich Avenue’s intersection with Lewis Street. Parking Productions, which has offered valet parking at previous Greenwich, the moved the cars to private lots on Mason Street and West Elm Street.
Dent told the selectmen that he felt “very positive” about how the valet parking worked late last year. He said he would look for a “bigger sample size” to see whether it is a viable program.
“Operationally it worked great,” Dent said. “There was an up and down in terms of the interest and the use. There definitely was a big increase from weekend one to weekend two.”
The selectmen plan to discuss the issue again soon