Geoff Folsom / SpokesmanThe intersection of Highway 97 with Glacier and Highland avenues will soon have curved gateway walls similar to these walls now at Evergreen Avenue.

Years after planning started, work is churning on a gateway to Flag City USA.

Construction started recently on the monument celebrating Redmond’s designation, which Congress approved in 1999. The city recently awarded a contract to Sage Construction of Bend to complete the $550,644 project at the intersection on U.S. Highway 97 and SW Glacier and Highland avenues.

The city has long looked at doing something with the land considered undevelopable since the 2008 rerouting of Highway 97. Officials came up with the idea of the flag monument as a way to combine Redmond’s Flag City designation with the need to spruce up the highway.

The area includes a drainage basin and pipe for the Central Oregon Irrigation District, said Steve Wilson, the city’s project manager.

“It’s an area that not a lot can happen in,” he said. “It’s a way of cleaning up that section and making it a visual amenity.”

Redmond announced intentions to build the flag monument more than two years ago at the former site of Ray Johnson Park, but costs came in above the initial $265,000 budget.

“It’s a combination of money and having the right people and the right ideas,” said Mayor George Endicott.

It also took time for the city to play host to a contest for the design of a flag celebrating its Flag City USA designation, Endicott said.

Dan Mooney’s design was selected last month from more than 30 entries, earning him a $1,000 prize. The winning flag features Redmond’s Hub logo with United States flags on each side.

The Flag City USA flag will fly at the monument, along with large United States, Oregon, POW-MIA and Redmond flags. They will be surrounded by a dozen smaller American flags that people sponsor through the Redmond Flag Committee. After 90 days, new flags will be rotated in and the old ones will go into the inventory of 1,400 flags to be displayed around the city on patriotic holidays.

The city council pushed for the project and handed oversight to Redmond’s engineering department a few months ago, Wilson said. Construction is underway, with footings to hold the monument in place. The city’s goal is to complete the project by October.

“We’re currently on schedule,” Wilson said. “There doesn’t appear to be any reason that we won’t make our timeline.”

The Flag City monument will also include curved walls with “Welcome to Redmond” signs, located just south of Highland Avenue and north of Glacier Avenue. The gateway is expected to be similar to the signs now on Evergreen Avenue at Highway 97.

The main monument wall will feature 4-foot-tall emblems of local civic organizations, including the Kiwanis and Rotary clubs. It will also have two emblems celebrating Redmond’s designation as a Purple Heart City. Endicott said the curved wall will allow both north and southbound drivers to see the emblems.

Wilson said the main monument will be about 400 feet to the south of the Highland intersection, with a landscaped berm in between. A retaining wall is being built at the front of the berm.

A pathway will be built in front of the wall between Highland and the monument — an area along the highway that now has no sidewalk.

“There will be lighting for all the flagpoles,” Wilson said.

The flag monument is part of Highway 97 beautification efforts, Endicott said. Future beautification projects will include a “Welcome to Redmond” sign at the Maple Street bridge and benches and landscaping along the 3-mile Homestead Canal Trail, part of which will run along Highway 97.

The monument was worth pushing for, Endicott said

“The whole idea is just to bring a sense of community, a sense of patriotism a sense of camaraderie,” he said. “Even those driving by, we want them to know that Redmond is a place you might want to stop and visit because it offers some things you don’t see every day.”

— Reporter: 541-548-2186, gfolsom@redmondspokesman.com