Flagpole again towers over downtown intersection

The stars an stripes again flew over the corner of Church Street and Main Street at the Laconia Public Library yesterday when a new pole was raised in place of the Douglas Fir that had stood for nearly 89 years — and survived the hurricane of 1938 — before falling to high winds that blew in over Lake Winnisquam on Feb. 17 of this year.

Joe Champagne, who with his wife Cathy owns and operates Jutras Signs and Flags of Manchester, said that the new 60-foot pole was constructed in two sections by PLP Composite Technologies, Inc. of Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire. "We'll tie the two pieces together, stand it up, set it in the hole and plumb it up," Champagne said, as his crew secured the pole to a crane as its arm reached more than 100 feet into the sky. Once the pole was off and perpendicular to the ground, Champagne and his team guided the butt end to a seven-foot hole in the granite surround. As the pole settled into place, workers tapped wooden wedges to stand it straight and plumb while filling around it with sand. "As the pole moves, the sand will tighten around it and keep it straight," Champagne said, adding that the pole was designed and built to withstand winds of 110 miles per hour.

Champagne, whose firm also restored the Weirs Beach sign, was pleased to be able to replace the decorative granite plinths around the base of the flagpole.

There was some talk of removing the granite and making a new base for the pole, he said. Instead, Champagne had an auger, 14 inches in diameter, especially made to ream the hole that held the original pole to a depth of seven feet.

Likewise, two pieces of granite were damaged beyond repair when the original pole fell, a spacer between the plinths and the cap that slipped over the pole and sat atop them. He said that all the granite was quarried on Deer Island in Maine and that Swenson Granite Works of Concord was to duplicate the spacer from matching stone. In place of the granite cap, which was broken into four pieces, Champagne planned to use an ornate bronze ring. However, he found that the ring would block access to the winch used to raise and lower the flag, which is seated inside the base of the pole. Although he thought that the winch could be accessed by drilling a hole through one of the granite spacers, he said that would consult with city officials before proceeding further. To fit the ring, it must be raised and dropped over the top of the pole with the crane, much like slipping a ring on a finger.

City Manager Eileen Cabanel told the City Council last night that the it cost $18,572 to replace the flagpole, of which all but $1,000, representing the deductible, was paid by the city's casualty insurance carrier.

The flagpole was first erected in September 1917. In March, as President Woodrow Wilson contemplated entering World War I, there were calls to display the flag, which included a proposal for the city to erect a flag pole and stage a flag raising. The pole, 101 feet long, arrived from Oregon. The trustees of Nathan B. Gale, the original library benefactor, contributed the stonework. One set, the pole topped out at 91 above ground. Twice, once in the 1940s and again in the 1960s, when the pole was seen to be listing, rotted lengths of the butt were removed. When the pole fell last winter, some 65 feet of its original length remained.