The Search for a New Howard County Flag

Photo Credit: Jenna Dodge

By Jenna Dodge

A&E Editor

On January 22nd, 2024, Calvin Ball gave a press conference announcing his intention to hold a search for a new Howard County flag design. The original flag, adopted in 1968, has served its purpose, and the county has outgrown its previous symbol.

Ball assembled an executive commission tasked with reviewing all of the flag design submissions and The Office of the County Executive released a statement saying “The Howard County flag is one of the few official symbols that reflect our County. After more than 50 years since its original adoption, the time has come to update and modernize its design in order to align it to present values.”

Creating a new flag for Howard County is no small task, and who better to ask to design one than Howard County residents themselves? An open call for flag submissions was released to the public. Submissions could be submitted via an online form from April 1st to June 30th, 2024 and then the submissions were narrowed down to ten finalists. Howard County Residents were able to vote on the ten final flag designs, and an ultimate meeting was held on January 28th for the commissioners to choose an ultimate design.

But what is it that a county flag should contain? A statement published on the flag commission website stated “The flag of Howard County should be a welcoming symbol which represents our entire community. The new flag will ultimately be flown outside of government office buildings and placed on all County web and social media content.”

Hammond Students agreed with the flag commission’s outlook on the purpose of a local flag. Sophomore Mackenzie Somerville comments “It helps to foster a sense of community in the county, and it helps people to feel represented.” Designs were scored based on the criteria of simplicity, color scheme, symbolism, enduring appeal, and narrative.

Citizens who submitted flags made different choices about what to include in their flag designs, depending on what Howard County means to them. However, many common symbols that appeared were the color green, the Patapsco and Patuxent Rivers (which border the county on either side), wheat, and deer. But some designs took a bolder route, and one design even featured a werewolf at the center of the flag.

“Where’s the werewolf?! Did we not learn that werewolves are cool on stuff?” says symbolism expert Mr. Osborne.

The last step in the flag selection process was a final recommendation by the flag commission of their three top design choices. Their number one recommendation is pictured below, with wheat representing the agriculture roots of the county, arrows representing the progressive spirit of Howard County, green representing the wildlife that stretches to every corner of the county, and blue representing the two rivers that border Howard County. After a long and arduous search process, a new county symbol has been found.