You may be wondering what solemn occasion has caused flags to be lowered to half-staff this week throughout New York State.<\/p>\n
The decision to lower an American flag is never taken lightly. While local municipalities control how flags are displayed on their property, most follow the lead of state and federal governments. In New York, there are only four permanent dates each year when flags are directed to be flown at half-staff: Memorial Day, Pearl Harbor Day, Peace Officers Memorial Day, and September 11, known as Patriot Day. Other times, it happens when state leaders choose to acknowledge a local tragedy or honor someone\u2019s extraordinary service.<\/p>\n
Why Flags Are at Half-Staff This Week in New York<\/p>\n
This week\u2019s order comes from Governor Kathy Hochul, who directed all flags on state buildings to be lowered on Wednesday, October 15, in memory of retired New York State Trooper Mark A. Ondus.<\/p>\n
Trooper Ondus passed away on October 9 from an illness connected to his work at and around the World Trade Center site following the 9\/11 attacks. He was among those who answered the call during one of the darkest times in New York\u2019s history, serving with courage when the state needed heroes the most.<\/p>\n
Schindler Funeral Home<\/p>\n
Schindler Funeral Home<\/p>\n
Governor Hochul said the tribute honors a man whose service \u201creflected the best of New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ondus served 26 years with the New York State Police before retiring in 2021. He was known by his fellow troopers and the community as a dedicated officer, a family man, and someone who put others first. He leaves behind his wife, Tammy, his sons Charles, Sebastian, and Nicholas, and his daughter Tauni.<\/p>\n
Flags will remain lowered from sunrise to sunset on Wednesday in his honor.<\/p>\n
Over 100 ‘Fun Facts’ About The Hudson Valley<\/p>\n
Did you know that Lucille Ball made her stage debut in the Hudson Valley? How about Philadelphia Cream Cheese wasn’t invented in Philadelphia, but in Orange County? Or that a mansion in\u00a0Dutchess County inspired the expression “keeping up with the Joneses?” Find out about those and over 100 other fun facts about the Hudson Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You may be wondering what solemn occasion has caused flags to be lowered to half-staff this week throughout…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":305084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,149542,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-305083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-the-boris-show","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115377667136737083","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}