Angie Beaulieu/Staff photo - Jim Sereigo-Wareing and Linda Noone stand near flags they have placed on the Howe Street highway overpass in Methuen. State highway officials have decided the flags must come down for the sake of driver safety.

Eagle Tribune-Stephanie Chelf-Staff Reporter

METHUEN - Jim Sereigo-Wareing has been known as the "flag man" for six years.

But he will reluctantly take down his patriotic displays along the Howe Street bridge and an Interstate 495 overpass after a ban was issued by state highway officials, ending a tradition he started after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Since the attacks, patriotic displays of flags and banners have been put up across the Merrimack Valley and all over the state. Sometimes, it's a loose sheet to welcome a soldier home from duty or a set of ribbons to honor a fallen hero.

The state doesn't want anything - flags, sheets, signs - hanging over a major roadway for safety reasons. A spokesman said the banners and flags could fall onto a passing car and cause an accident.

Sereigo-Wareing's Howe Street display, overlooking Route 213, has special meaning to Sereigo-Wareing because it's a tribute to Alex Jimenez, 25, an Army specialist from Lawrence who has been missing in Iraq since May 12. For Andy Jimenez, Alex's father, the flags have provided support.

"When I found out about the flags on the bridge, it brought relief in the midst of my sadness because I felt like everyone was supporting me," Jimenez said. "If there is no danger to cars traveling under the overpass, I don't see a problem with having the flags."

Erik Abell, Massachusetts Highway spokesman, said the state is concerned about the safety of drivers.

"Homemade signs and other items posted on overpasses pose a potential safety hazard to vehicles on roadways," he said. "It's an issue we need to be aware of. MassHighway's highest priority is keeping the roadway safe for all users."

Sereigo-Wareing said the state should take down loose hanging sheets and messages written out in paper cups tucked into the chain-link fences, because those could be unsafe. But he says his displays are maintained and secured to the inside of the fence so they do not hang onto the highway below.

But everything has to come down, MassHighway said.

"We understand the reason why (Sereigo-Wareing is) doing it," Abell said. "We want to join him in his patriotism, but we have to be concerned with potential for anything to fall off an overpass. We're engaging veterans groups to look at other locations to erect signs with a patriotic message."

Sereigo-Wareing met with MassHighway Commissioner Louisa Paiewonsky and her staff in Boston last week. They offered him an alternative to flags on bridges - a permanent "Welcome home troops" sign to be installed at state rest stops.

But Sereigo-Wareing said that's not enough.

"Rest areas just won't work. The visibility isn't there," he said. "The sign is a good idea, but it has to be placed on the highway, like where (drivers) enter the state on the major highways. We want to pay tribute to the soldiers and their family."

Abell said other options are being considered, but couldn't be specific or say when those alternatives would be in place. A spokeswoman for Gov. Deval Patrick said the issue is a transportation issue and declined to comment.

MassHighway called for the flag ban a year ago, but backed off after the story was reported in The Eagle-Tribune and by other media. The state said it was a "miscommunication" and that secured flags like Sereigo-Wareing's would be allowed.

Sereigo-Wareing has a stack of letters and postcards he's received from soldiers and their families thanking him for the flags.

When Marine Cpl. David Vicente, 25, of Methuen died in Iraq in 2004, Sereigo-Wareing honored him with a display of flags, signs and a wreath on a Methuen overpass. When his parents, Orlando and Celeste Vicente, drove by, they pulled over on the highway to take pictures. Later, Sereigo-Wareing gave the items to the Vicentes.

"When they saw it, they were struck by it," Sereigo-Wareing said. "It's not just a flag on a bridge. The flag has meaning. It's to honor the troops. The sacrifice soldiers and their families pay is immense."

Stephen Zabierek drives every day on a bridge that Sereigo-Wareing has decorated in honor of his son, Andrew, who was killed in Iraq in 2004.

"The decorations enhance the bridge and Andrew's memory. It's a shame to take it down," said Zabierek of Chelmsford. The bridge overlooks I-495.

"It's a great tribute to him and a great honor," Zabierek said. "Maybe the state could come up with a policy to decorate bridges."

Linda Noone started decorating an overpass above Interstate 93 in Reading three years ago. Her daughter, Michelle Carter, is a Marine sergeant who will be going back for another tour in Iraq in March.

"It's just something for the men and women to see when they're coming and going," said Noone, a Lawrence native who now lives in Reading. "It's just letting them know someone cares. The effort behind it is love. It's nothing political behind it."

Noone said she's not taking her display down willingly - it's too emotional, she said. The state said it did not have a planned timeline to enforce the ban, but in the next several weeks, the state will remove flags and anything else hanging over bridges and overpasses.

Sereigo-Wareing hopes the state follows through on its ideas to find other ways to honor troops on state roads.

"(The ban) is not going to stop patriotism. It's going to relocate it,"

We have to find another way to do it."

Staff writer Yadira Betances contributed to this story.