April 2020 Update

Finally, the season for conservation is here! But, the Coronavirus has tipped everyday life upside down. At the moment work is not progressing as it should be regarding the restoration of the Evangelical Protestant Church Cemetery. Full-time work, work sequester, and other issues are prohibiting work for the moment.

Fortunately a solid game plan was made. Work will begin when it can. Previous to the outbreak of the Cornonavirus pandemic, the cemetery was walked and surveyed. Eighty-one gravestones were counted in the survey. That is the number of gravestones that need to be addressed this year. If this is accomplished, then the reclamation / restoration project will be complete.

Fortunately the vast majority of the gravestones that need attention are smaller stones and many of them are clustered near each other. This makes work easier since many stones can be worked on in one particular area without moving equipment and supplies all over the place. I am sure that there will be a pop-up stone here and there that needs attention.

This year we are lucky that there appears to be very little Winter damage to the stones. Also, no one has driven off the roadway and into the cemetery and damaged any gravestones this winter. Last Fall and Winter, two separate incidents occurred where knuckle-heads jumped the curb with their car and drove into the cemetery and damaged the same gravestone twice. The gravestone of Civil War veteran John Apply was hit twice and damaged both times. Last year his stone was repaired and it still looks great.

Maintenance of the lawn will most likely be an issue again. We already know that the Pastor/s who now own the former Evangelical church building and cemetery will not maintain the cemetery grounds. So cutting the lawn will most likely be done by volunteers again. Hopefully every is well rested! One such volunteer from last year, Mike, was given wild flower seeds to plant on the hilly areas of the cemetery. Hopefully these seeds take and beautiful wild flowers bloom. If this happens it should make those areas of the cemetery look great and also remove the need for maintaining the steep hills. The hope is that the flowers choke out the weeds. Time will tell.

During late March some gravestone restoration work was begun. Roughly ten small gravestones were raised out of the soil, cleaned, and leveled. Minor work needs to be done to finish these stones. Some pictures of this work before, during and after the work are below.