There are concerns that there will not be enough American flags to place on the graves of deceased veterans this Memorial Day.

On Thursday, Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein, who is a chairman on the military and veterans affairs committee for the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, said that the committee has some concerns about the number of available flags that counties will be able to receive ahead of Memorial Day.

Nothstein said the factories that produce the American flags are currently shut down so all flags and grave markers are on back order.

He said that after speaking with Christine LeClair, Carbon County Veterans Affairs director, he believes Carbon County will have enough flags for the graves in the county, but many other counties may have a problem securing enough flags.

“That’s sad that we’re (counties) not prepared for our veterans,” he said, adding that he wanted to let the public know in the event the county does not have enough flags to place on every veteran’s grave. “Bear with us. It’s not that we’re not trying.”

Another problem that needs to be worked on is how the flags will get placed.

Usually, Boy Scout groups and other organizations help the county place the flags on the graves, but with social distancing in place, that could be a problem.

Nothstein said that LeClair will have to figure out how the county is going to do that this year.

In other CCAP matters, Nothstein spoke about a Senate bill that is heading to Gov. Tom Wolf’s desk that would form a cost and recovery task force to determine how the state is going to bring businesses back up and recover the costs from the pandemic.

The problem, Nothstein said, is that county commissioners have learned that the task force is not including county commissioners on the board, but rumors are circulating that county commissioners are going to be the ones who have the say when businesses in that county reopen.

“We don’t want that responsibility,” Nothstein said, speaking on the consensus of the county commissioners throughout the state who were on the CCAP conference call. “It’s going to pit one county against another.”

He used the example of state liquor stores closing because now people are traveling to other states to purchase liquor.

“It creates other problems,” he said. “What the commissioners want is uniformity throughout the whole state.”

CCAP is currently requesting a seat at the task force table when it is set up.

“We (county commissioner representatives throughout the commonwealth) need to be at that table when they come up with this mitigation plan,” Nothstein said.