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Y2K flags will fly in Gold Hill Gold Hill's Year 2000 flag By MELISSA MARTIN GOLD HILL -- When the calendar rolls over to the year 2000, Gold Hill will be ready. More than 70 brightly colored flags announcing the new year will fly from downtown businesses this winter. "This is a simple way for businesses to show their community spirit," says Christine Beck, a member of the Gold Hill Nugget booster club. The yellow flags show a blue world wearing a party hat beneath the phrase, "Celebrate 2000." The Nugget Club sold them for $20, a bargain price that also included a bracket and a 5-foot pole, says booster club member Lisa Roddam. Flags may be a first for the Nugget Club, but the dozen or more members have long been sponsoring the town's summer celebration called Gold Dust Days. The Nugget Club also gives away Christmas lights to Gold Hill businesses, sponsors a Christmas decoration contest and lights the city's tree in the middle of town. "Every year we've lit the tree in the park, but this year, we can't do it because our electrical box isn't up to code," Beck says. The Nugget Club already spent $450 bringing the electric box at the park up to code. But repairing the box at the tree would cost about $1,000, which the club doesn't have, says Beck, a third- and fourth-grade teacher at White City Elementary School. Another setback for Nugget members was the disappearance of the garland the club had stretched across Main Street every Christmas for years. "It's been stolen and it's gone," Beck says. But thieves can't steal the Nugget Club's enthusiasm. Since funding is tight this year, members will put their energy into the flag project. The club didn't make a profit on the Year 2000 flags. But members hope to make $5 each on spring flags, using the funds to purchase winter flags for next year, Beck says. "We hope to follow in the footsteps of Shady Cove and hang flags for every season," Beck says. In the meantime, members of another booster club in town, Friends of Gold Hill, say they might be able to raise the money to repair the electric box so Gold Hill will have a Christmas tree this year. "The lights are still in the tree," Beck says. "It's just a matter of getting the power to them." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA