Verne Strickland Blogmaster / August 19, 2012
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By Judy Royal / StarNewsOnline
A Carolina Beach business owner feels so strongly about his patriotism that he was prepared to close up shop for it.
Randy Wood, a veteran and
owner of Red Hotz Electric Car Rentals at 515 N. Lake Park Blvd., said
he would have shut down in 24 hours if he had to remove the 16 patriotic
flags that fly around his building. But the Town Council's 4-1 vote
last week making patriotic flags exempt from the sign ordinance will
keep him here, he said.
"I would've pulled it," Wood said Friday. "I'd already be gone right now if it hadn't gone the way it did on Tuesday night."
Councilwoman
Sarah Friede voted against the exemption because it also meant
unlimited patriotic flags can fly in residential areas, and she
expressed concerns about that.
"I
don't know that I'm in agreement with unlimited anything, frankly," she
said. "An unlimited display of anything is not necessarily in good
taste. Where the line is between respect and disrespect, I don't know."
But other council members said restrictions would send the wrong message to service men and women who spend their money here.
"I
don't have a problem with having patriotic flags really unlimited in
our town," Councilman Bob Lewis said. "I agree the military enjoy seeing
the display of patriotism we have in our town. I think it's great."
At
issue were the 16 patriotic flags that have been flying on the Red Hotz
lot since last summer. An ordinance the Town Council adopted in June
classified all flags as signs and limited the number allowed to one per
50 feet of space a business owns along the road. Under that rule, two
would be permissible at Red Hotz.
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