Municipal flag with new design soon to fly in Wheeling
A redesigned municipal flag soon will fly at Wheeling village hall and elsewhere in town.
Depicting a red, eight-spoked wheel over a red-and-white background, the flag replaces a predominantly green-and-yellow design featuring Illinois that has been in use for more than 50 years.
“The time has come to adopt an updated flag that better represents Wheeling’s current image and incorporates the rebranding the village has implemented over the past several years,” Village Manager Jon Sfondilis said in a memo.
Village staffers developed the new flag with Cook County Commissioner Scott Britton — an amateur vexillologist — and a professional graphic designer, Sfondilis said.
Making a wheel the central element was important, Sfondilis said.
So was incorporating colors from the village logo, which appears on official documents, roadside banners, signs and elsewhere.
The parts of the wheel represent milestones in Wheeling’s history and elements of life in town, including its first settlement, its incorporation in 1894, Chicago Executive Airport, and the community’s diversity.
Even the colors in the background are symbolic. The horizontal, red bars represent unobstructed travel and transit on roads, rail and airport runways, Sfondilis said, as well as the village’s cherished past and prosperous future.
And unlike the current flag, the new one features no writing, which is one of the North American Vexillogical Association’s key rules of good flag design.
More information about the redesign can be found on the village’s website, wheelingil.gov.
Sfondilis and the village board discussed the proposed redesign in August. Trustees are expected to formally adopt the design Monday night.
The session is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at village hall, 2 Community Blvd. The meeting will be open to the public and also livestreamed on the village’s YouTube channel.
A new flag will be displayed at the board dais during the meeting. Others are scheduled to go up at all municipal buildings and at Flag Park, which is at the southeast corner of Dundee Road and Milwaukee Avenue, starting Tuesday morning, Sfondilis said.