January 2019 Update

Yes, this blog is still alive and the cemetery restoration continues! It has been a while since the last post. Many items of interest have occurred since the August article.

• Numerous gravestones were rehabbed during the 2018 season. Including three obelisks that were in danger of toppling over. We can think of three more that need attention this Spring.
• Approximately ninety more stones, most of them smaller in size, are still in need of attention at the cemetery. When Spring and warmer weather arrive work will begin at a fast pace. The plan is to complete the gravestone restoration in 2019. 
• More topsoil, stone dust, D2 (the go-to cleaning product), and bagged cement for fabricating new bases for certain gravestones will need to be purchased.
• Very soon a plan will be devised to reclaim the perimeter of the cemetery, again. This needs to be done, again, before the encroaching growth gets outrageous. Hopefully this work will begin in the Winter as soon as some of the snow melts. The plan is to have the perimeter cleaned up before the stone work begins.
• It appears that the littering and dumping has slowed down at the cemetery but violators are still sneaking in. Isn't it easier to just to put your garbage in front of your house?
• Recently, someone,perhaps a fool speeder, lost control of his/her car while driving around the bend. The car hopped the curb and drove into the cemetery. A stone of a Civil War veteran that was in the process of being restored was knocked over. Fortunately the stone was not completely restored otherwise a second repair would be even more difficult. Luckily the stone did not break further.
• Last year an attempt to replace the roof on the old cemetery vault building was moving forward but abruptly stopped. The roof is completely missing on one side due to tree branches rubbing the asphalt shingles over the years. The roof desperately needs to be replaced soon. The roof may even collapse this Winter. The reason for the halting of the roof replacement is next.
• In July, a congregation bought the former Evangelical Protestant Church building in the South End for its services. A requirement for the sale of the church building stated that the cemetery had to be included in the transaction. When the grass was getting "knee-high" a concerned individual whom has numerous ancestors buried in the cemetery contacted the new property owner and asked what are the future plans for upkeep of the cemetery? The response was "absolutely none... I didn't want the cemetery but I had to take it to get the church... I have no plans for doing anything with it"
• To be continued...