The City of Norwich Common Council voted last night to adopt this design as the first official City of Norwich Flag. The design represents the landscape around the city, as well as the city's continuously improving state and bright future. (Photo from the City of Norwich)

NORWICH — The wait is over: the City of Norwich has adopted the first official city flag.

Early last year, City of Norwich Historian Agnes Eaton began the search for the first City of Norwich flag, which was presented as a community collaboration project. A small committee of community members was formed to steer the project, and community members were invited to submit their own designs for consideration.

In March of this year, the committee had narrowed down the 88 submissions to a final eight, and put it to a public vote. Individuals could vote for their two favorite designs, with the design receiving the most votes being declared the winner.

In total, the city received 714 votes. Initially, the committee had hoped to announce the winning flag on Founders Day, April 17. However, after the winner was determined, it was later discovered there were copyright concerns with the design. A further investigation found the design could not be used by the city.

"The person combined two different elements, but separately, even though he combined them, they’re still copyrighted," Eaton explained. "So it looks like we can’t use the original design that we had hoped for, because of the copyright issues."

Instead, the city went with the design that received the second highest amount of votes. The design features a blue sky, green hills, and a yellow sun with a blue river running beneath it.