Reno City Council officially adopts a city flag for the first time ever

After several months, more than 2,000 designs and 5,000 public votes, Reno City Council adopted its first official city flag for its 150th birthday.

Council member David Bobzien led the charge for this flag and made the motion to adopt it. It was adopted unanimously. Of the five design choices, the dark blue flag with circular sunset, mountains, Truckee River and silver band with star in the corner was selected as No. 2 by both the public and the Reno Arts Commission, which the council preferred.

At the April 25 council meeting, Mayor Hillary Schieve asked how Reno would identify with this new flag. Vexillologist James Ferrigan said that the identity is established through use and incorporation into the city after adoption, not through it immediately looking like Reno.

Though a previous flag has been flown off and on since 1959, it was never adopted by officially in a city ordinance.

Previously: Why Reno needs a new city flag

This new flag, Ferrigan said, incorporates the three mountain peaks surrounding Reno, the star that represents the Reno Arch (which is actually a snowflake, according to the original designers of the arch), blue skies, the silver of Reno's industries and the Truckee River through the center.

Ferrigan said he would work with the designer to make some adjustments to the final flag, so that it is more easily reproduced as a real three-dimensional fabric flag that can fly in the wind.

Those adjustments would include picking a dark blue from the 40 standard dyes available to flag makers, enlarging the circular symbol a little bit, then moving the star inward to fix its proportion and position to more closely resemble that of the Nevada flag.

Michael DeMartino was awarded $2,000 for first place by the Reno Arts and Culture Commission, $2,000. Reno native Tucker Stosic, whose design was made official, was awarded $1,000 for second place. Deitrik Reed was awarded $500 for third place.

Mike Higdon is the city life reporter at the RGJ and can be found on Instagram @MillennialMike, on Facebook at Mike Higdon, Reno Life and on Twitter @MikeHigdon.

Correction at 3:30 p.m. April 25: The winners of the contest were in the wrong order. This has been corrected.