Burns Lake Mayor Chris Beach is standing behind the village’s new flag design, which was recently approved by council.
“The flag design falls in line with the Village of Burns Lake’s sign strategy and design guidelines and uses set colours from the Village of Burns Lake’s colour palette,” he told Lakes District News.
After the story ‘New flag design chosen for Burns Lake‘ was posted to Facebook on Aug. 16, about 40 readers left a comment expressing their disapproval of the new design.
“I don’t like the trees, they are too pointy and don’t match the rest of the beautiful artwork,” commented Robin Campbell. “Hope you guys didn’t spend a bunch of money on this. Thumbs down for me. Sorry.”
Axel Orr commented that money could be spent on better things.
Bonnie Ramnes Heagy commented that she was not a fan of the new design and asked if there was a contest in town to choose the new design.
Amanda Dawn Miller also commented that Burns lake should have had a contest to choose the new design.
“We have many good artists in this town,” she wrote. “Why not let a local artist get acknowledged instead of something that is from a computer?”
Mayor Beach explained that the new flag was designed by the village’s deputy corporate officer along with input from staff and council.
“The original designs, before council edits, were made by the deputy corporate officer. She researched design ideas from a friend studying sustainability subjects at university in Australia, as well as researched flag ideas on the Internet,” he told Lakes District News.
“Research provided information on relevant symbols such as upward pointing triangles, which are representative of community sustainability. Community sustainability ties in with the Economic Diversification Committee’s mandate,” he continued.
“Once the ideas were culminated, the flag was designed to fit within the scope of the Village of Burns Lake sign strategy,” he added. “The actual logo in the flag was originally designed by Bonnie Rempel.”
Council was given a total of seven design options to choose from at two council meetings.
The chosen design features three trees, which represent the three pillars of community sustainability – environment, economy and people. Some of the other options featured seven pointed stars, known as Commonwealth stars, representing the seven local area communities – six First Nations and the village.
Replacing the current flags is costing the village over $1700, which will provide the municipality with 11 flags.
The new flags will be flown at the village office, in council chambers, at Spirit Square, at the Burns Lake and District Chamber of Commerce, and at meetings of both the Union of B.C. Municipalities and North Central Local Government Association. A flag will also be flown in the centre of the village, at Pioneer Park, when a new flag pole is installed later this year.
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