BATON ROUGE - A new flag will fly over East Baton Rouge Parish Thursday morning.

Metro Council members approved the design for the new parish flag, which will be displayed outside city hall. It includes a blue, curved line representing the Mississippi River, a red line representing the "red stick", and a shield representing the three countries that controlled the city.

Public Works employee Mark LeBlanc designed the flag, which he said represents the five cities in the parish. The flag will first be raised Thursday morning at 7 a.m.