The Barrington Town Council recently approved the construction of a new flagpole plaza near the entrance to the Town Hall property. 

The Council voted 3-2 to award the bid to Ramos Masonry for $55,900 — the work will include the construction of a 460-square-foot concrete plaza near the north side of the Town Hall entrance on County Road. The plaza will feature three fiberglass flagpoles which will fly the US flag, the state flag, and any other outreach flags town officials deem appropriate. 

The flagpole discussion goes back years in Barrington, following a decision by town officials to fly multiple flags, including a Black Lives Matter flag, on the flagpole located inside the veterans memorial next to the town hall. 

A group of veterans in Barrington pushed back and asked the Council to remove any outreach flags from the pole in the memorial. Eventually, members of the Barrington United Veterans Council resigned in protest over the issue. 

Earlier this year, Council members Carl Kustell, Kate Berard and Rob Humm voted in support of a plan to erect three flagpoles near the southern entrance to the town hall property.

Kustell has said the new flagpole installation will offer better visibility for outreach flags and also remove the flags from the veterans memorial. Only the US and veterans flags will fly on the flagpole inside the memorial, officials said.

In early October, the State Historic Preservation and Heritage Commission approved the proposal, and Barrington issued a notice seeking a contractor to complete the project. 

Two companies responded to the notice, including Ramos Masonry, a company which has worked for the town previously. Ramos Masonry, which offered the low bid for the flagpole project, built the stone walls at the entrance to the St. Andrew’s Farm Field property a few years ago. Both projects — the walls at St. Andrew’s Farm and the flagpole plaza — were designed by landscape architect Kevin Alverson. 

The second bid, offered by Yard Works, included a price of $76,805, officials said. 

Town officials had considered using brick pavers in the flagpole plaza, but Barrington Town Manager Phil Hervey said that concrete was a suitable alternative, as it was more affordable and easy to maintain. 

Money from the town’s allotment of American Rescue Plan Act funding will cover the cost of the project.

The Council was split on the need to construct a new flagpole plaza. While Kustell, Humm and Berard supported the project, Annelise Conway and Braxton Cloutier opposed it. 

At a previous meeting, Conway questioned whether the flagpole plaza was needed — she said the Council appeared to be looking for a solution to a problem that did not need to exist. She also suggested that the newly-formed Veterans Advisory Committee should decide whether a new flagpole installation was needed. 

At the October Council meeting, Conway and Cloutier voted against awarding the bid. 

Barrington resident Dr. Stephen Glinick also opposed the construction of a new flagpole plaza. In a recent letter to the editor, Dr. Glinick argues that the town has been “embroiled for several years in a completely needless controversy.”

He added: “Because of the social agenda of the previous council, we are now stuck with dealing with where flagpoles should be situated. In addition to antagonizing the veterans community in Barrington, we have also made enemies of a number of other individuals that believe that the town has no business selecting winners and losers when it comes to celebrating social justice agendas. This has been a no-win situation from the very beginning.”

Glinick said the current Council should stop “tinkering” with the issue.

It was not specified when work on the new flagpole plaza will begin.