It was perfectly predictable — perhaps inevitable — that the Hartford Heroes Banners project would create discord. There’s bound to be conflict when a town allows public property to become a billboard for the expression of private groups’ opinions, even if the intention is to honor military veterans and first-responders.

As our colleague Christina Dolan reported recently, the initial round of 12 banners displayed on town-owned electric light poles during September and October included one for the late Dan Hillard, a Wilder resident and former chairman of the Vermont Republican Party who served in Vietnam and went on to a career as a financial advisor. In the latter role, he was convicted of embezzling $65,000 from an elderly widow and also settled a suit by three other Hartford residents who alleged fraud.

Naturally, Hillard’s designation as a hero did not meet with universal approbation. “I would like to see a little more consideration around who we are, as a town, promoting” as a Hartford hero, Selectboard Vice Chairwoman Kim Souza said at a recent board meeting.

She noted that the seven-member Hartford Heroes Banner Committee, which vets applications from families, is not town-sanctioned but instead a private group with no municipal charge or directive.

Dennis Brown, the committee chairman, didn’t see what the big deal was. “(Hillard) did some time in the Big House,” said Brown. “In the end, he served his country. He made a mistake later in life, and he paid for that.” And in fact, the committee’s only criteria for banner eligibility is that the honoree has to have been honorably discharged from military service or worked as a first-responder.

Selectboard Chairman Michael Hoyt shared Brown’s laissez-faire attitude. “It’s really not a Selectboard thing. At the end of the day, if there are people up there (on a banner), and it becomes a story, it’s the committee itself that’s going to answer questions about it.”

We demur. What’s displayed on public property inevitably reflects on the host community, whether or not it wants to own it.

Contrast Hoyt’s comments with those of Randolph Selectboard Chairwoman Trini Brassard, whose town is considering a request by the American Legion to hang Hometown Heroes banners on town light poles from Memorial Day through Veterans Day. She told Dolan in an interview that she wants to make sure the town doesn’t honor “someone who made choices after they got out (of the military) that don’t reflect well” on the community.

This is perfectly sensible, but perhaps minimizes the difficulty that municipalities encounter under U.S. Supreme Court precedent that requires message regulations to be “content neutral” under the First Amendment. One way to interpret that requirement is that if any public displays at all are to be allowed, the town must pretty much keep hands off.

In Hartford, the banner committee has now received permission to display a second round of banners. Brown says that it will discuss its vetting process when it next meets in March. Perhaps one way in which that process might be improved is to open up applications to a broader range of candidates under a broader definition of heroism.

Any regular reader of Valley News’ obituaries, for instance, can identify many unsung heroes among the generations of women who have sacrificed or indefinitely put their own lives on hold to provide life-affirming, loving, long-term care for elderly or disabled relatives. One might as readily find nurses or teachers or any number of others who have displayed the quiet, behind-the-scenes, day-to-day heroism that distinguishes a life worthy of honor, even if far from the battlefield.