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Rose Hill Cemetery group thanks volunteers

Efforts help restore graveyard

The Friends of Rose Hill Cemetery, a fundraising group, held a picnic at the cemetery Saturday to thank people who have written checks or volunteered to help revive the big graveyard from its near-moribund state of maintenance a couple of years ago.

The revival effort has included creation of the Friends group, reorganization of the board and establishment of a regular maintenance regimen, with two part-time workers and monthly, daylong volunteer cleanups.

“It kinda works,” said Cindy Beauchamp, secretary-treasurer of the cemetery board and one of the hosts of the picnic, which drew 30 or 40 benefactors, who partook of doughnuts, cake, cookies, fruit, cider, soda and punch.

She emphasized the “kinda,” because the need is still great, and the cemetery’s future remains fragile.

The ultimate goal is for a trust fund large enough so interest alone would pay all maintenance and other costs.

The current budget is $25,000 or $30,000 a year, according to Brenda Morris, who heard the figure from her maintenance supervisor.

Morris mows between 25 and 30 hours a week, and fellow part-timer Randy Focht trims for about the same number of hours.

Between them, they keep up with the parts of the cemetery that are most visible or where her boss, Richard Weyant, a volunteer board member, directs them to cut.

But to keep up with the entire cemetery would require two more people and another mower and trimmer, Morris said.

The monthly volunteer days — during which Morris and Focht work off the clock — are “supplementary,” Beauchamp said.

In addition to regular maintenance, the cemetery is in need of major projects — replacement of many of the old and damaged trees that line the driveways and repairs of those driveways themselves.

Accordingly, the Friends are preparing to start a fundraiser within a couple of weeks, according to Beauchamp.

“We still have a long way to go,” Beauchamp said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.

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