It’s better than it was last year, but it’s not right yet. The blue is still too light, and the red needs to be a deeper red.”

Father Jonathan DeFelice

The parade route stripe is better, but it is not right. That is the unofficial assessment from the man who may watch the annual painting of the red, white and blue lines in historic, downtown Bristol more closely than anyone.

Father Jonathan DeFelice shined a light on the two-and-a-half-mile Route 114 paint job last year, when he complained to the Bristol town government, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (DOT) and this newspaper about the quality of the work. The son of a renowned Bristol house painter who lives in the Constitution Street home his family has owned for 76 years, DeFelice critiqued the sloppy lines and the chosen colors — a blue that was too light, and a red that was too maroon. It was a poor tribute to the flag of the United States of America and the Fourth of July, in his opinion.

Asked how he feels about the stripe this year, DeFelice said it looks better than the 2023 version, but it is not what it should be.

“My bottom line is, it’s better than it was last year, but it’s not right yet. The blue is still too light, and the red needs to be a deeper red,” DeFelice said. “At least this year, the lines are very crisp and clean.”

It’s a state thing

DeFelice took his initial complaints to the town last year and received no response from town leaders. At the time, he did not know he was barking up the wrong tree, since the stripe is painted every June by DOT.

This year, DeFelice again brought his concern to the town, speaking during the public comment period of a Bristol Town Council meeting last month. He was hoping town leaders would join him in championing the cause for the good of Bristol. As is custom for items not on their agenda, councilors listened but offered no response.

“I told them, ‘if anybody ought to get it right, Bristol ought to get it right,’ ” he said. He has yet to hear from any of them.

DeFelice also sent an email to DOT and received a two-sentence reply on June 11: “Good Afternoon, The striping should be taking place this week, weather permitting. The colors have been approved by the necessary management and administrators and will be applied as such. Regards, Heather Gately, Senior Information and Public Relations Specialist.”

DeFelice interpreted that as a polite “mind your own business.”

The tradition of stripes

The painting of the center divider lines along the parade route of the nation’s oldest, continuous Fourth of July celebration is a unique tradition that began in 1969. Since the beginning, the state has taken on the responsibility, since Route 114 (Hope Street) is a state road.

In the 1980s, there were several years of drama, when DOT directors threatened not to paint the stripe because the job was not included in their budget. One year, Bristol residents whipped up a donation campaign and raised the $750 necessary to get the job done.

That sort of drama ended nearly 30 years ago, when the parade route stripes were codified by an act of Congress. Led by the late U.S. Navy Captain William Bundy, a Bristol resident who was DOT director at the time, and the late U.S. Senator John Chafee, the red, white and blue stripes were included in the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995, specifying that they remain at the center of Route 114 in Bristol year-round.

At the June meeting when DeFelice spoke to the council, he waited through two hours of other meeting topics, including a discussion about whether to allow a floating “pool boat” in Bristol Harbor, and what type of lights to string from the downtown trees at the holidays.

“The town administrator ran a poll about which Christmas lights to put on the trees, and they talked about the results at that council meeting. Clearly Christmas lights were important,” DeFelice said. “I think we should be concerned about the colors of the parade route, too.”

In his email to DOT, DeFelice, the retired longtime president of Saint Anselm College, shared a link to the U.S. State Department’s official description of the U.S. flag and its colors. In his opinion, it’s clear DOT is not following that guide.

DeFelice said he will continue this quest next year and hope someone listens. “I intend to keep at it,” he said.