ROCHESTER — With new flagpoles comes new responsibility for the Town of Rochester, which adopted a flag policy at a July 10 Select Board meeting.

Two new flagpoles donated to the town from SEMASS in December 2022 prompted a discussion to adopt an official flag policy in Rochester, said Rochester Town Administrator Glenn Cannon.

The two new flagpoles are outside Rochester Town Hall.

The town will only allow the display of four flags on “town owned flagpoles,” said Cannon, “to keep it simple.”

The four flags are: The United States flag, the Massachusetts state flag, the Rochester town flag, and the POW flag “that’s flying out there today,” said Cannon.

“It’d be good for us to have a policy … we’ll be able to guide [people] toward that policy,” said Cannon, who added that the flags of United States military branches could be flown as well.

According to Cannon, the town only had one flagpole in the past and did not have many requests to fly different flags.