Stores get reprieve on notice to remove U.S. flags

Raymond Pumphrey says it was patriotism that led him to display seven American flags outside his furniture store on Canton Highway in Marietta.

So Pumphrey was disappointed to receive a letter earlier this week from Cobb County putting him on notice that his display violated the county code prohibiting the use of national flags to draw customers.

“The ordinance says that I can only fly one. I was a little disappointed to know that,” said Pumphrey, who has been flying the flags outside Georgia Wholesale Furniture for 14 years.

“I’m a law-abiding citizen. If they say that I could fly only one, I would fly one,” he said.

The county reversed itself a day later, allowing Pumphrey and owners of nine other businesses to keep their grand displays of the Stars and Stripes.

Cobb County spokesman Robert J. Quigley said a single complaint about the U.S. flag displays at several Canton Highway businesses was brought to the code enforcement department’s attention.

“The county didn’t want to be in a position of measuring someone’s patriotism,” Quigley said.

Pumphrey said his display was not meant to draw attention to his business. “The American flag means a lot to me,” he said.

Had the county stuck to its decision, he would have had to remove the excessive displays by the end of the week.

Instead, he is preparing to plant more — 25 small flags in planters outside the store — Thursday, in honor of Sept. 11. They’ll be in the planters for one day.

“I’m not trying to make a statement. I was going to do it anyway,” said Pumphrey, whose father, a soldier in the Army, was at Pearl Harbor and Iwo Jima during World War II. “I’m happy that it turned out the way it has, that they reversed the ruling.”