C'Ville post office replaces tattered flag

The tattered and torn American flag that has been flying above the Carpentersville post office was replaced with a new Stars and Stripes, hoisted Friday afternoon.

Just after 1:35 p.m. Friday, Pete Louckes from Olympic Signs in Des Plaines ran a new flag up the pole outside the post office at the northern end of Meadowdale Mall.

"They sent me out here on an emergency call," Louckes said.

The flag will now be handed over to the Carpentersville VFW post for proper disposal, Postmaster Ralph Kaiser said.

"We go through about a dozen flags a year and we always hand them over to the VFW," Kaiser said. "This flag was only up there for about four weeks."

Kaiser said the weather had significantly shortened the life span of the flag, which he said usually lasts about three months.

"The weather and the ice storm we had didn't help," Kaiser said. "When you put something that is soaking wet out and you freeze it and put it where the wind is going to whip the heck out of it, that will deteriorate it real fast."

For two weeks, Glenn Gibbs said he drove past the post office on Route 25 and wondered why the flag had not been replaced.

"I would rather see no flag flying than one that it is torn like that," said Gibbs, who brought the flag to the attention of the Daily Herald.

"I could understand that there must be a reason that there isn't a flag flying," Gibbs said Thursday, "that they would rather fly no flag at all than fly one that is torn like that."

Within hours of the story appearing in the Herald, the new flag fluttered smartly and Gibbs no longer has to wonder.

Patrons entering the post office Friday as Louckes replaced the flag rope and other hardware said they did not realize how worn out the flag was until they read Friday's article.

"Who actually thinks to look up at the flag all of those times that they pass it?" said Dave Christie, a resident of Carpentersville. "It will definitely be nice to see a new one flying up there, though."