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A graphic shows four flag designs that are among the 42 designs being considered to be the new Santaquin city flag. 

Flag designs courtesy Santaquin City

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Santaquin is asking residents to weigh in on 42 flag designs and select the ones that they would like to see as the next Santaquin city flag. 

Courtesy Santaquin City

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Santaquin is asking residents to weigh in on 42 flag designs and select the ones that they would like to see as the next Santaquin city flag. 

Courtesy Santaquin City

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Santaquin is asking residents to weigh in on 42 flag designs and select the ones that they would like to see as the next Santaquin city flag. 

Courtesy Santaquin City

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Santaquin is asking residents to weigh in on 42 flag designs and select the ones that they would like to see as the next Santaquin city flag. 

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Santaquin is asking residents to weigh in on 42 flag designs and select the ones that they would like to see as the next Santaquin city flag.

Courtesy Santaquin City

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Santaquin is asking residents to weigh in on 42 flag designs and select the ones that they would like to see as the next Santaquin city flag.

An online survey hosted by the city lets households review the flag designs — which range from a navy blue mountain range over a red backdrop to a white and yellow sego lily or a green and blue flag with an apple in the center — and vote on their top three choices.

The city lists five elements that make a “great flag,” including keeping it simple enough “that a child can draw it from memory” and using meaningful symbolism in the flag’s colors, pattern and images.

Other elements included limiting the number of colors to three, never using “writing of any kind” and avoiding duplicating other flags while using similarities “to show connections.”

According to Santaquin City Councilmember Betsy Montoya, the idea for creating a new city flag “came from a training/planning session two years ago.”

“The idea was then discussed in an official city council meeting 20 months ago and I offered to have the members of the youth city council work on designs,” Montoya wrote on Facebook on Jan. 22. “The idea was agreed upon by the council at that time.”

Montoya added that there had not been any community input up to that point, so the city council “posted on social media to invite others to participate” in designing the flags.

“The members of the youth city council wanted to work on a design, so they did — as a service to our community,” the councilmember wrote. “None of them knew we had a current flag because it is not hung up anywhere and they wanted to update it.

“They worked together and collaborated on the design and are very proud of their efforts. I am very proud of their efforts,” she continued. “They have contributed 250 hours of different types of service in our community in the last two years. They deserve credit for what they do for our residents and the ideas they have.”

The current Santaquin flag, which is one of the 42 designs that residents can vote on, is white with a blue silhouette of a Native American face and an emblem showing “a sun, mountains, a pipe, a tomahawk, feathers, an apple, and cherries,” according to the website Flags of the World.

Montoya said she did not have “intentions of offending” or creating “division” by advocating for a new city flag design.

“If residents do not want a new or updated city flag, that’s OK,” she said. “I will give the youth the opportunity to have their design as the official youth council flag. I also think that if residents like our current flag we ought to hang it up.”

The city flag discussion in Santaquin coincides with an effort by Utah state lawmakers to create a State Flag Task Force that would study whether Utah should adopt a new state flag.

Senate Bill 48, sponsored by Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, passed its final reading in the Utah State Senate on Feb. 5 but had not been voted on in the House as of Friday.

To learn more about the Santaquin city flag design survey, which closes on March 15, visit http://www.santaquin.org/our_community/flag_design_survey. The survey is available in both English and Spanish.