Homeowner says he won't take down flag pole

YORK, S.C. -- Driving through the Bethelfields neighborhood in York, you can see it's a very patriotic community as American flags are flying outside many homes. But there's one flag that the homeowners association has a problem with.

The flag flies on a 20-foot pole in the Bob Tremper’s front yard.

“I've had nine houses before and always had a flag pole up on my property,” said Tremper. So when the Vietnam veteran moved into Bethelfields a year ago, he thought he’d found the ideal spot to fly his flag. This summer, he called the community manager of the homeowners association, “and asked if there's anything in the by-laws that says I can't. She said, ‘No, there's no problem.’ I said, ‘I'm putting up a pole.’”

Four months later, he got a letter from the HOA telling him to take it down. As a New York transplant, he found irony in the day the letter arrived which was the day before 9-11.

“I was there when the planes hit the World Trade Center,” said Tremper. In the letter, the Bethelfields HOA states "it is not your flag or your patriotism that is in question here, it is the flag pole itself.”

Tremper said, “I guess it just stands out aesthetically, they don't like it.” But Tremper know he has the support of many neighbors as they drive by and honk while giving him a thumbs-up.

He questions how a silver pole can be considered an eyesore as he adds, “It's aluminum, it's cemented in, it's not gonna fall over.”

And Tremper calls the HOA’s demand hypocritical.

“I told them, it's like calling the kettle black, you know. Come on, you can't tell me to take a flagpole down when you have 15 poles at the entrance of this place,” he said.

When WCNC asked him if he will take it down he said, “not at this time I'm not. I told them I'm not gonna roll over.”

Tremper got a second letter from the homeowners association questioning the palmetto tree in his yard. He answered them by saying he thought the tree would be OK since his home is in the Palmetto State.