Call them patriotic, decorative or a marketing tool. Car dealers love flags; Fayetteville city leaders do not.
Starting Monday, businesses will be slapped with a $100 fine for displaying multiple flags.
Despite the ordinance, flags will still be flying high at a mobile home dealership and at Purvis Brothers Ford. Owners say they are willing to challenge the rules. If they get fined, they will appeal to the Board of Adjustment.
"We think a few people made it bad for everybody," says Bill Childs, co-owner of Purvis Brothers Ford. "If flags were an eyesore, we certainly would take them down. We feel like ours are not an eyesore."
The ordinance is an effort by the city to improve Fayetteville's look. No more waving checkers or flapping colors. Even in this military town, groups of American flags are out.
Some owners are already complying but they are not happy about it.
"We want to do right by what the city says, but we'd rather have the flags. So what are you going to do? You can't fight the city because you are going to lose," says Jesse Felan, manager of a Fayetteville car dealership which has already taken down its multiple flags.
Under the new ordinance, businesses will be allowed to fly just three flags that meet city criteria.
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