EAST RIDGE — Friday afternoon at the Camping World of Chattanooga RV Expo, Nancy White poked around a luxury recreational vehicle, walked out into the bright light of day and gazed up at the uncommonly large U.S. flag the company maintains on its grounds, visible also to thousands of motorists passing daily on Interstate 75.
“It just makes me glad that I’m an American,” said White, who had come up with her family from Rome, Georgia, for the expo. “I get emotional about it. So much is going on, and we’re blessed to be here.”
The sentiment seems likely to please Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis, who said he has erected some 220 such flags around the nation on his secret quest to get to 1 million square feet of total flag.
There is a problem, however: Lemonis may have violated some local laws along the way. East Tennessee’s city of Sevierville, for example, said the 130-foot tall flagpole Camping World recently erected there exceeded the city’s longstanding height ordinances by nearly 200%.
A local zoning board early last year denied the company’s request for a variance, the city alleged in a recent lawsuit filed in Sevier County Chancery Court, but Camping World built the flagpole anyway.