MARSHALL — New designs for Minnesota’s state flag and state seal were unveiled last month, but the old designs are likely to stick around in local communities for a while longer. Marshall city and Lyon County officials said this week that the state hasn’t set them any guidance yet on when they should – or would be able to – transition to the new designs.

“We’re going to follow the adopted state flag,” said Marshall city administrator Sharon Hanson. “But I don’t have a good answer to when that will occur.”

Flags and other items with the new designs might not even be available yet, Hanson added.

Designs for a new state flag and seal were adopted in December by a commission established in the 2023 state legislative session. The new flag includes a dark blue shape resembling Minnesota and a white star, and the new seal design includes a loon, Minnesota’s state bird.

The new state flag and seal designs are set to take effect on May 11.

Switching over to new designs would possibly affect everything from the flags flying at Marshall city parks, to seals on county records.

“I haven’t heard yet how the state intends to make the transition to the new design,” said Lyon County Administrator Loren Stomberg. At the county level, the official state seal is used on many public documents, especially at the Lyon County Recorder’s Office, he said.

“We hope we will be able to use our current inventory of supplies that have the current seal, and transition to the new seal when we replenish our supply,” Stomberg said.

Law enforcement is one area where the image of the Minnesota state seal is used a lot, said Lyon County Sheriff Eric Wallen. The seal is part of the design on officers’ badges and patches, and is also used on squad cars, letterhead and business cards, he said.

Wallen also said he thought the new seal design could be transitioned in gradually for the Sheriff’s Office, as equipment is replaced.

“I don’t see an immediate change for us,” he said. Immediately switching over to new designs would carry a cost – for example, Wallen said, a law enforcement officer’s badge costs around $120.

For the city of Marshall, the change to new flag and seal designs would likely be “pretty minimal,” Hanson said.

“For us, I think it’s really the flying flag” that would change, she said. Hanson said Marshall currently has eight Minnesota state flags flying at various city parks, and at the Marshall airport. The flags can last anywhere from a few months to a year, depending on where they’re flown. “Some flags in the open with wind don’t last long,” Hanson said.

Hanson said the city has about 20 Minnesota flags with the old design in stock. When the new flag design becomes available, Hanson said the city would assess what to do with the old flags.