Itasca County board votes to fly Minnesota’s old and new flags

ITASCA COUNTY, Minn. (Northern News Now) - The Itasca County Board voted to fly both Minnesota’s old and new state flags after hearing from residents on both sides of the issue.

We have been tracking the debate over Minnesota’s new state flag and decisions by many communities to keep flying the old version of it.

Read: Cohasset votes unanimously to fly old Minnesota state flag

After discussing whether to fly both flags Tuesday evening, the board briefly talked about which flag should fly on top before ultimately deciding to install separate flagpoles to fly each flag at the same level.

County board members voted on the issue after they’d heard from a lot of people on both sides.

“I’m not ashamed to say that I’m a Republican and believe in its core values and I’m not being divisive for wanting the Itasca County Board to replace the 2024 Minnesota state flag with the traditional L’Etiolle du Nord flag,” said Itasca County resident Dave Holbeck, while addressing the board.

Another Itasca County resident, Adrianne Reiners said, “I think that by entertaining this motion, you are being divisive. You and I can have a conversation and we can agree to disagree, and I think that when our government leaders are not standing up for decisions that have been made as a whole for this state.“

The county is now working to order two new flagpoles.

The vote comes just a week after Cohasset voted to fly the old flag outside of its city hall. Last year, Babbitt also voted to stop flying the new flag. Hoyt Lakes has also been considering the issue.

State law does not require cities and counties to fly the new flag, or any state flag at all.

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