The State - News from May 21, 1989

A city board’s order to remove American flags from shops and other businesses in San Juan Bautista has raised tempers and created controversy in the small mission town. Lonny Greywolf Hurlbut, San Juan Bautista’s acting police chief and a Korean War veteran, said he will refuse to obey the order by the city’s cultural resources board. The board ordered shopkeepers to stop displaying Old Glory in front of their businesses, accusing them of using the Stars and Stripes to attract customers. The flag flap started this spring after the board conducted a survey of the town’s signs and found dozens of alleged violations of the local sign ordinance. Among them was the use of the American flag for commercial, rather than patriotic, purposes.