Promise kept as ‘Welcome Home’ flag is illuminated once again

Jason Springston was very proud to be a resident of Fallbrook when the community, led by the Chamber of Commerce, dedicated a “Welcome Home” area on the north side of East Mission Road in 2009 in support of service men and women at Camp Pendleton.

The site, located near Rancho De Loma Road and Avo Drive, features a large American flag hoisted on a historic flag pole that once adorned the original Fallbrook post office. The flag was illuminated at night by a solar-powered lighting system.

Fast-forward to Memorial Day 2015, and Springston was feeling anything but proud or patriotic while passing by the site.

“I was driving past there with my son and there was no flag up,” said Springston. “It had been taken down because the solar lighting system had been stolen. I saw that a car had hit the split rail fence. So, here you had a damaged fence, trash all over the place, and no flag.”

Springston, who served as president of Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce in 2013, immediately pulled over his truck.

“I said to myself, ‘you know what, this was a chamber project and I’m a past president,’” said Springston. “The community made a promise to our vets and active duty that we would honor them with this site. I couldn’t look at my son and say, ‘if you make a promise, you need to keep it,’ and not do anything."

“I pulled over my truck and told my son, ‘let’s go,’” continued Springston. “My son and I picked up all the trash that day and we put up a flag that I happened to have in the truck. I took out my tools and I fixed the fence and I made a promise that from today forward there will never not be a flag here.

“So I raised and lowered it every day for about a year, at sun up and at sunset,” Springston continued. “It was fun because I got to take family members and friends with me, and veterans that I knew would participate. My mom went, and my father-in-law would help out a lot. That ended last month when the lights went on.”

After having been dark for nearly two years, the “Welcome Home” site was illuminated once again on March 14, 2016, a date that marked the end of a lengthy, frustrating, costly – but ultimately rewarding – project that Springston started in October 2014.

“Twice, the solar lighting system was stolen by miscreants or somebody,” said Springston. “They’d steal the inverters in the batteries to get easy money. They were $2,500 solar systems, so it was very frustrating. After the second time I said, you know what it needs is buried electrical and a panel. It’s all underground and can’t be tampered with. So I started the process of finding out what it would take and how to do it.”

“The process,” as Springston would find out, was anything but easy.

“The problem was is that it’s on county property in a right away,” said Springston. “It’s the Old 395 road bed. If this was on your own private property, you just go down to the county and say I want an electrical building permit, you give them $250 and you go and start your project, have them inspect it, and you’re done. For this, it was way more complicated.”

County officials explained to Springston the first thing he had to do was find the existing encroachment permits issued for the previous projects at the site.

“There were two of them, one for each phase,” said Springston. “Phase one was for the flag pole and the lights. Phase two was for the addition of the 'Welcome Home Stone' (a boulder featuring a plague that reads: Welcome Home) and split rail fence. Those existed and were numbered 2008 and 2010.

“To make this a legal project, I needed to amend both encroachment permits, get the electrical building permit, get trenching and traffic control permits, and what’s called a maintenance and removal agreement,” continued Springston. “Those five permits and one legal contract agreement are the documents you had to hold to do the project.”

Springston not only invested a lot of his time acquiring the permits, but also some of his bankroll. The excavation and traffic control permits cost $956, as did the encroachment maintenance agreement. Add in $247 for the building/electric permit, another $37 for a recorded copy of the encroachment maintenance agreement, and it's $2,196 out of Springston's pocket before even considering money spent on gas for the frequent trips to the county offices in San Diego.

Springston hired Peter’s Paving and Grading for the trenching, and Fritz W. Tatzer and Eric Engebretson for the electrical work. And on March 14, after all the challenges and obstacles, Springston and his family – all in their pajamas – watched from his truck as the lights went on.

“The most important take-away is that the community of Fallbrook loves and supports all our veterans and active duty military, and this project was for them,” said Springston. “It is important that we honor the original spirit of the project conceived by Bob Leonard, Ron Chesney and Jackie Heyneman as implemented by the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce and the Fallbrook Beautification Alliance in 2008."

“I’m happy that after ‘phase three’ of this project, the pole is now lit at night with hard-wired electric and is flying the American flag as well as the POW/MIA flag, which was given by Joe Meads and the Mission Chapter of the Rough Riders Motorcycle Club,” said Springston.

The total cost of the project was $10,826 (most of which was paid by Springston) and the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce is conducting a fundraiser to pay for it as well as future power bills.

"We're partnering with Patroit Cycles," said Lila MacDonald, CEO of the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce, of the fundraiser. "They built a motorcycle and we're going to raffle it off. We're selling tickets for $10 apiece and all proceeds will go directly to fund the flag project. In November, in conjunction with Veterans Day, were going to hold the drawing for the motorcycle."

Note: Springston would like to recognize the following people for their help with the project: David and Samantha Veitman (“for helping to raise and lower the flag when I couldn’t”), David Adler and Leo Preston (“for helping fill in the electrical trench”), and Bill and Loraine Flegenheimer ("for their donation”).