Questionable: Why has the big flag been taken down from the cell tower in downtown Rhinelander?

We asked Gunder Paulsen, parks, building and grounds director for the City of Rhinelander, this question. He responded:

“We decided to take the flag down for the winter months. We were having a lot of problems with it getting tangled up all the time. We were supposed to fly it at half-mast a couple of time this fall and we couldn’t do it because we could not get the flag down. Finally, we got it untangled and so we took it off the tower. We are exploring the possibility of getting a bead kit and a weight for the bottom of the flag so it won’t get tangled up so much. I have lots of people ask me about other flags in the area that fly this high, but the problem is that we are not flying a flag from a flag pole. We are flying a flag from a cell tower and there is a big difference. This cell tower is tapered and that causes lots of flying problems for the flag. We are planning on putting the flag back up right before Memorial Day next year, however.”