American Legion Post 345 Commander Jim Cain addressed the Steelville Board of Aldermen on July 6 regarding an article in the June 17 edition of the Steelville Star about American flag displays in the city.

“(It) frames a volunteer capacity issue as a commitment issue, and an all-important perspective was absent from this discussion,” Cain said. “The American Legion is not a city department, it is a volunteer veterans organization, and for decades, veterans and volunteers throughout our community have purchased, stored, transported, installed, maintained, removed, repaired and replaced the flags displayed along our streets.”

The Legion depends on its dedicated volunteers, and finds it difficult to find new ones. Cain commented that American flags are not decorations, but a representation of sacrifice, service, duty and civic responsibility when publicly displayed. When displayed during holidays, they help connect Americans to “specific moments of remembrance and reflection.”

On June 1, the aldermen discussed entering a partnership with the Steelville American Legion for more consistent American flag displays along Main Street.

During the discussion, Alderman Ward 2 Jason Ward said that the flag displays will encourage patriotism in town. The aldermen also discussed the flag displays in surrounding cities and how they are out for a lot longer compared to Steelville.

Cain said that patriotism is not measured by how long a flag is in the air, but by the emotion that it invokes in citizens’ hearts.

“You don’t see it, you can’t buy it, can’t give it, (but) you know it when you have it because you can feel it,” Cain said. “Civic pride should be celebrated, not desecrated, and if city leaders wish to explore anything veterans-related, my post welcomes that conversation.”

Adding to that, Cain didn’t understand the consistency comment. They display flags nine times every year, fighting issues like flags being damaged, stolen or flag etiquette, which includes not hanging a flag on a telephone pole if there is a banner or basket above it. Unfortunately, they don’t have the means to display the flags any higher.

Mike Kempf, also with the Steelville American Legion, said that before the newspaper article, they didn’t know there were any complaints about how they did the flags.

He added that he didn’t understand Ward’s quote about the relationship between the American Legion and the city not being great.

“We don’t know where that actually came from, other than when the community building had been remodeled. We have a space down there designated for American Legion, all their meetings,” Kempf said. “Our stuff we had in there was moved out, and a lot of it disappeared. Jim is the commander of the post. He presented a small bill to this, not the present mayor, but the past mayor, and I guess it got blown out of proportion. That’s all we can figure out.”

Among the missing items were three cases of flags, and they were never reimbursed.

DeRennaux said that the missing items could have been moved around when contractors were working on the building or accidentally thrown out.

Due to donations to the American Legion, Cain said all the expenses were covered. While the board claims that former mayor Terry Beckham never brought the bill to the board’s attention, DeRennaux said that they still wanted to help out the American Legion by possibly buying them new flags and more durable staffs.