Boy fascinated by flags sparks move to adopt city banner

Ben Laurin is crazy about flags and geography, so much so that he often will quiz his family about them during dinner, his mother Jennifer said.

Ben, a seventh-grader at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Port Washington,  will ask not only about the flags of other countries, he will also ask about the banners that represent various cities, his mother said.

“He comes up with his own flags just for fun,” she said. “He’s very creative.”

But recently the 12-year-old noticed something, she said.

“He said, ‘Wisconsin has a flag; other cities have flags — why doesn’t Port Washington have a flag?’” his mother said.

Ben was so curious, he emailed Mayor Ted Neitzke asking if he was right and the city didn’t have a flag.

If it didn’t, Ben said, he had a design the city might want to consider.

“He said, ‘I think this would be perfect because this is what Port means to me,’” his mother said.

Neitzke mentioned the email to aldermen last week and showed off Ben’s design.

“I think that’s pretty cool,” Neitzke told the Common Council.

Laurin’s design shows a calm blue Lake Michigan with a bright yellow sun rising, with the city’s distinctive lighthouse and breakwater on one side.

Neitzke suggested the city hold a contest to find the best design for a flag.

“Maybe he’ll win, maybe he won’t,” he said of Laurin’s design.

Neitzke said he considers Port a “sunrise city,” with brilliant sunrises that mark a new day and new opportunities every morning, and believes that the community should be branded as such, so he would like to see a flag incorporate the sun and lake.

“We have our emblem, and that’s the lighthouse,” Neitzke said, adding he would like to see it incorporated  into a design.

“I like Ben’s design because he put all that on his flag,” Neitzke said.

He suggested that the city accept designs for a flag from the community with an eye toward designating a winning design in August. Flags could then be created, with residents being able to purchase them — perhaps as holiday gifts — and the city able to fly them outside municipal buildings, Neitzke said.

The flag design could perhaps one day be incorporated into the design on the city’s water towers and signs, he added.

Ben, who was watching the Common Council meeting, was elated, his mother said.

“He is very excited,” she said. “He said, ‘I don’t care if I win, I’m just excited we’re going to have a flag. I cannot wait. Then we’ll be like these other big cities that have flags of their own.’”

Neitzke also suggested last week that the city create two annual awards — Citizen of the year and Civic Group of the year —to be given each January.

The awards would honor individuals and groups for their service, advocacy, innovation and extraordinary deeds in the community, he said.

“We have some pretty remarkable things that are happening in our city,” Neitzke said. “You can’t walk into a park in the city without seeing the impact of the civic groups.

He said the city should create an advisory group to come up with criteria for the awards. Nominations would be made by city residents in September and October, with the committee culling the list to a specific number of finalists. The community would then vote to determine the winners in November.

The  winners could be placed on a city wall of honor, he added.