16 Pa.C.S. § 15522 – Flags to decorate graves

(a) Memorial Day flags.— The board of county commissioners shall provide flags on each Memorial Day with which to decorate the graves of all deceased servicepersons and the graves of all other deceased individuals who served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard or Merchant Marine during World War II or an organization officially connected to those forces, whose separation from service was honorable and who are interred within the county. Flags provided under this section shall be standard size, colorfast and American made and shall be purchased at the expense of the county from money in the county treasury.
(b) Veterans' organizations.— A county may coordinate with local veterans' organizations to ensure that cemeteries are decorated in compliance with the provisions of this section. Flags required under this section shall be furnished to the various veterans' organizations in numbers required for their respective communities.
(c) Appropriations.— Money expended by a county under this section shall be in addition to money appropriated by counties for Memorial Day purposes.
(d) Maintenance.—
1. (1) Annually, the authorities in charge of each cemetery are authorized to remove flags as follows:
  1. (i) A cemetery may remove flags when flags become unsightly or weatherworn any time on or after the first working day after Veterans' Day. Prior to Veterans' Day, a cemetery may request replacement flags from the county which may be used by the cemetery to replace weatherworn flags, if replacement flags are available.
  2. (ii) Notwithstanding subparagraph (i), a cemetery may remove flags as a part of the cemetery's normal course of maintenance not before the first working day after Independence Day, but prior to Veterans' Day provided that the cemetery makes the flags available to family members, veterans' organizations or other community organizations for the purpose of decorating graves in recognition of Veterans' Day.
2. (2) A cemetery may remove flagholders for annual storage upon the authorized removal of flags.
(e) Removal of flags by family members.— A family member of an individual whose grave is decorated with a flag by the county for the purpose of Memorial Day may take and keep the flag after the first working day after Veterans' Day.
(f) Offense.— Except as otherwise provided in this section, an individual, other than a family member removing the flag from a deceased relative's grave, who removes or causes the removal of flags prior to the first working day after Independence Day commits a summary offense and, upon conviction, shall be sentenced to pay a fine of $300 and, upon failure to pay a fine, to undergo imprisonment not to exceed 90 days.
(g) Exception.— A cemetery or an owner, employee, agent or contractor of a cemetery who removes or causes the removal of a flag, grave marker, headstone, flagholder or other memorial in good faith in the course of maintenance, repair or mitigation of damage may not be subject to subsection (f) or section 15513(f) (relating to memorial benefit).