A new version of the National Park Service story about it ordering removal of American flags from construction workers’ vehicles has been issued, and it is 180 degrees different from the agency’s original statement.
According to the latest statement, the Park Service now confirms that a Denali National Park employee indeed contacted the Federal Highway Administration to let a Granite Construction project superintendent know that a visitor had complained about the flapping sound of an American flag, mounted on a vehicle that was on the Parks Road. The construction of a bridge at Pretty Rocks, near Mile 43 of the Park Road, necessitates about one trip a day back to the Parks Highway to retrieve items from a job parts yard outside the park.
“After further review, it has been confirmed that a Denali National Park employee notified FHWA staff about a visitor’s complaint of a flag ‘flapping’ on Denali Park Road and asked if there was an appropriate way to request it be detached from a contractor’s vehicle to limit wildlife and visitor impacts,” park spokesman Peter Christian said. “The employee contacted the FHWA without authorization, and without the superintendent’s knowledge. Park officials have taken corrective actions to ensure future park and project communications follow proper procedures.”
This account is almost exactly what construction workers said happened, although the workers did not relay the “appropriate way to request” portion of the anti-First Amendment action.
Importantly, the statement noted that Park Superintendent Brooke Merrell, whom has been widely blamed for the incident because she is in command of the park, was not consulted before the action was taken to remove the flag. Instead, it was a lower-level employee contacted the FHA project manager and asked for the flags to be removed from workers’ vehicles. The Park Service issued no apology for either its employee action or misrepresenting it to the public and running a smear campaign on those who reported the incident.
The previous statement had denied the incident entirely, in essence calling the workers who reported it to independent media outlets in Alaska liars:
“Reports that a National Park Service (NPS) official ordered the removal of an American flag from a Denali bridge construction worker’s vehicle at Denali National Park are false. At no time did an NPS official seek to ban the American flag from the project site or associated vehicles. The NPS neither administers the bridge project contract, nor has the authority to enforce terms or policies related to the contract or contractors performing the work. The American flag can be seen at various locations within Denali National Park – at park facilities and campsites, on public and private vehicles, and at employee residences – and we welcome its display this Memorial Day weekend and every day,” the Park Service wrote on May 26.
The NPS didn’t change its story until the account from the Federal Highway Administration issued last week contradicted the May 26 statement by the National Park Service.
Meanwhile, a poll in the Must Read Alaska newsletter that ran last week indicates that readers of this publication believed the workers and not the National Park Service May 26 statement of denial.
