Officials Looking at Three Commercial Flagpole Purchases

By Adam Swift

Wave that flag high, Winthrop. The town is looking to purchase three new commercial flagpoles for official use at the E.B. Newton building. “I did receive the quotes … for approximately $8,500 for three new commercial flagpoles at E.B. Newton,” said Town Manager Tony Marino at last week’s Town Council meeting. There would be one 30-foot pole in the center for the American flag, with a 25-foot pole on either side, one for the state flag and one for a community flag. Marino stated he is still working on a flag policy to present to the Town Council that would help govern the display of the community flags. Marino added that there has been some discussion among groups in town about fundraising efforts to help pay for the new flagpoles.  “We’re still finalizing that, but we will have that well in place before June,” said Marino. The town manager added that the flagpole currently outside Town Hall will remain in place. In other business, Marino told the council that negotiations are continuing with Comcast concerning a new cable and internet contract with the town. “This always generates a lot of questions around town,” said Council President James Letterie. “We appreciate Comcast as the only provider we have in terms of internet, but we would always like services to be better.” Marino said he has spoken with the Comcast representative Winthrop deals with about coming into talk to the council internet service and other issues related to the contract. One of the aspects of the contract the town is looking at is increased capital funding for the WCAT community cable station. “One of the items that’s been in past contracts, and I don’t know if it disappeared or what, is that years ago (Comcast) had an office in town as part of the contract where you could pay bills and ask questions,” said Letterie. “That went away when they said Boston was close enough. Well, Boston is not necessarily close enough and I would like that to be brought up to say ‘whatever happened to that?’”