Flags fly along West Main

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom PATRIOTIC TRAVELWAY – Twenty American flags now line a stretch of West Main Street in Dover-Foxcroft, flags funded by the GFWC/Miosac Club. The display will be up through Sept. 11

Stuart Hedstrom

Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — Throughout the summer those traveling along West Main Street will notice American flags posted along a mile-long stretch of road from Monument Square up to the campus of Foxcroft Academy. The flags will be posted through Sept. 11 and match those along East Main, North and Summer streets.

The new West Main Street patriotic display of 20 flags is a community improvement project of the General Federated Women’s Club (GFWC)/Miosac Club of Dover-Foxcroft, explained project chair Barb Austin. Austin said the club had previously considered such an initiative “but the Sebec Lake Ice-Out was a little more successful than in years past.”

GFWC/Miosac Club members voted to use some proceeds to purchase flags, poles and brackets from World of Flags in Milo and Charleston. “The town agreed to put them up for Memorial Day and it was really pretty spectacular,” Austin said, with the flags and accessories posted to alternating utility poles and colors flying on both sides of West Main Street.

“It has really been embraced by those of us who live along West Main Street,” Austin said. She said West Main Street businesses have taken part thanking “the hospital, Maine Highlands Federal Credit Union, the Academy, Chris Clukey at Dover Audiolog, Mountain’s Market, Butterfield’s and a lot of just regular folks” for their contributions.

The flags are expected to last for three years, but will need to be replaced in the future. The GFWC/Miosac Club will continue to raise funds to replace worn flags, and more information can be had by contacting Austin at 564-2281.

Dover-Foxcroft officials thanked the club for its work on the West Main Street flag project. “They have been working at least this past year, if not longer, to raise money for these flags,” Town Manager Jack Clukey said during a May 27 selectmen’s meeting. “I just think the whole place looks real nice and I appreciate their work with that.”