- November 19, 2024
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Grand Haven resident Tom Bagnoli won’t take down his Wounded Warriors Project flag for anyone — not even to avoid the $1,000 fine the Grand Haven Master Association has billed him for flying it.
He put up the Wounded Warrior flag underneath an American flag in his backyard in January, after becoming a monthly contributor to the nonprofit, which provides services to wounded U.S. soldiers. He learned about it after seeing another local resident’s Wounded Warriors flag.
“I just thought it would it be a perfect thing under the (U.S.) flag to show people that this organization exists,” he said. “All I wanted to do is keep this flag up until all of our guys are home and safe.”
Grand Haven’s restrictions on flags and signage permit residents to fly a U.S. flag in their backyard, and to add a flag for a branch of the armed services, or a POW-MIA flag, beneath it. But the rules don’t allow for other flags.
Front yards have fewer rules: People even fly flags in support of sport teams.
But Bagnoli has a large U.S. flag in his backyard, not his front yard, and he wants to keep the Wounded Warriors flag flying beneath it.
So he went before Grand Haven’s Architectural Design Committee, asking the group to bend the rules a bit. When he’d put the flag up, he said, he wasn’t aware he was violating any codes.
But the request was denied, and in accordance with the Grand Haven Master Association’s code, Bagnoli was fined after he refused to remove it. The total bill, according to documents from the Grand Haven Master Association provided by Bagnoli, came to $1,000.
Bagnoli said it accrued in $100 increments for 10 days afer he refused to remove the flag.
The Grand Haven Master Association could not be reached for comment.
Bagnoli hasn’t paid the $1,000 fine, he said, and he doesn’t intend to.
“I just don’t feel that it’s logical that they would be against these things when there are flags on people’s balconies for the Boston Red Sox,” he said. “They’re just following the rules of the community, but they do have some leeway.”
Bagnoli said the Grand Haven Master Association has said they would place a lien on his home if he doesn’t pay the fine, and that he plans to hire a lawyer to fight the charge.
“I’m just going to stick with what I feel is right,” he said. “It’s not a Republican flag or a Democratic Party flag. It’s a flag for the soldiers.”
