Business owner refuses to take down American flag

NEW CASTLE -- A business owner says state highway officials have pressured him to take down an American flag he has flown since last year's terrorist attacks because it blocks the view of an Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame sign.\nThe dispute started in April after state crews determined that Cary Plummer's 3-by-5-foot flag outside Landmark Mortgage Co. along Indiana 3 was blocking motorists' view of the brown state-owned sign.\nPlummer said the highway department told him road crews would remove the flag if he did not take it down by Tuesday.\n"I am not prepared to take it down, nor am I going to let anyone take it down," Plummer told The Star Press of Muncie for a story Saturday.\nDwane Myers, a highway department regulatory supervisor, said the agency never demanded Plummer remove his flag, but officials did politely ask him to do the "neighborly thing" and move it.\nMyers said road crews would not remove the flag Tuesday.\n"We were trying to be the mediators," Myers said. "We asked him to be a good neighbor. Being a good neighbor goes right along with being a good patriot."\nState Rep. Tom Saunders, R-Lewisville, has talked with agency officials on Plummer's behalf. Saunders said he believed the department should be more flexible in its rules on tourist attraction signs.\n"Even if the flag wasn't there, you still wouldn't be able to see the sign," Saunders said. "It's in a maze of signs"