Woodbine’s flag saga heard in Md. House hearing

By MICHEL ELBEN
Staff Reporter

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Members of the Woodbine, Md. community traveled to the state capital on Valentine’s Day to show their love for America and to voice their support for a bill that would compel the State Highway Administration to establish a permit program authorizing individuals or groups to display American flags in traffic roundabouts.
“I simply wanted to fly the American flag in the roundabout to show that we’re thankful,” said Rhonda Patrick Winkler, erector of the “Woodbine flag.”
Del. Warren Miller, R- Dist. 9A, the sponsor of the bill, presented the bill in a hearing before the House Environmental Matters Committee.
Miller said the SHA road crew’s removal of an American flag from the circle at Woodbine Road and Old Frederick Road in December had sparked local protest and attracted national media attention.
It was those protests, led by a local farm family that had maintained the flag in the circle for three years, which led Miller and fellow Del. Gail Bates, R-Dist. 9A,  to sponsor the bill.
Winkler was the only panel member to speak publicly on the bill during the hearing.
Rhonda and her husband, Jeff, own Steel Fire Farm, in the Lisbon-Woodbine area.
The Winklers raise corn, soybeans, 4-H beef and dairy cattle, pigs, goats, horses and mules.
Winkler said her family had erected the flag in honor of her nephew, Christopher Lawson, before his deployment to Afghanistan three years ago.
The flag means a lot to veterans like Lawson, who thankfully made it home safely, Winkler said.
“The American flag, for me, is a symbol of history and what our families fight for,” said Winkler.
Miller said he has had discussions with SHA officials about allowing residents to fly flags in traffic circles, but that “there seems to be a lot of confusion within the SHA on how to allow this to happen.”
Miller noted that SHA officials have told him that a process exists for getting approval to fly a flag in a roundabout. But he said the process is far too complex for average citizens because it involves obtaining an engineer’s cost estimate, a site plan, a vicinity map and a variety of other documents.
In a written statement submitted to the committee, the Maryland Department of Transportation stated it “understands the noble intentions underlying this legislation,” but described the bill as “redundant” and wrote that “existing statute allows the same result” as would be provided by the bill.
The statement also expressed concern that the bill is not “content neutral” — it would allow for flags to be flown but not other items — and would raise “a likely challenge under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.”
The written testimony also noted that SHA is developing statewide guidelines on installing fixed objects in roundabouts that will be ready in approximately six weeks.
“The statewide policy is intended to balance the request of individuals or communities to install fixed objects and landscaping against the safety concerns posed by objects within state right-of-ways,” the statement said.
Del. James Malone, Jr. D-Dist. 12A, who is the vice-chairman of the committee, said committee members were committed to finding a solution.
“We’ve been working very hard to get this all remedied,” Malone said. “We will get it all squared away.”
After the hearing, Miller said Malone’s comment was encouraging.
“We have some work to do,” said Miller.
Miller said he would be satisfied when SHA came up with a comprehensive policy and the Winklers put the flag back in the roundabout.
Winkler said she was also optimistic.
“I hope it’s not a long, five-year process,” she said. “We’ve been standing still a long time, this is definitely a step forward.”
“We will continue to fight for the right to fly the American flag,” said Winkler.