Amherst Town Meeting took an advisory vote in 2007 and rejected Kelley's petition to fly the flags every year.
AMHERST – The Select Board will not set a special meeting to take up a request by resident Larry J. Kelley to fly the 29 commemorative U.S. flags on Sept. 11 for the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks on America.
Kelley spoke to the board during the public comment period of the Monday meeting, but any request for the flags to be flown must be placed on an agenda for the board to take action. The board does not meet until Sept. 16 and will not set another meeting to consider the request that Kelley makes every year.
The Select Board on Sept. 10, 2001, set a policy to allow the commemorative flags to fly on six holidays – Patriots Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Veterans Day. Kelley believes Sept. 11 should become a seventh date.
The Select Board amended its commemorative flag policy to allow the flags to fly on the light posts and utility poles every five years to mark the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 at the Pentagon, the World Trade Center in New York City and in Pennsylvania. Kelley has argued they should be flown every year so people remember.
Kelley said the annual Sept. 11 commemoration at the town's central fire station is not enough of a reminder of the terrorist attacks.
He has asked the board to place the question of having the flags flown each Sept. 11 on the town election ballot as an advisory and said he will abide by its outcome. Town Meeting in an advisory vote in 2007 rejected his petition to fly the flags every year.
Board members suggested Kelley could collect the required signatures and bring the ballot question to voters himself. He would need to gather the signatures of 15 percent of the town’s registered voters, which would amount to more than 2,000 such signatures.
Kelley has started an online petition on Change.org , asking that the town fly the flags every year. As of Wednesday, 95 signatures had been recorded. He says he's looking for 1,000.