Good afternoon Bethany Family!
We had a nice day on Saturday for our clean up day! Myself, Gary Roberts and my dad Terry Burnett were all in attendance. The boys were picking up trash and cleaning up old grave décor when I arrived. We also cleaned up around some graves where bushes and perennials were overgrown. The brochure holder I purchased didn’t work out so as soon as I get one that does I will go out and add it to our welcome board and get the brochures in!
We discussed the gravel road that should be laid soon, the plat-book and missing people issues, the fence and the dirt/brush piles and more…. >
MEMORIAL DAY:
We cleaned off the Veteran Graves and I purchased flags to put at all 9 of our veterans laid to rest. Myself and my dad ensured we had everyone.
GRAVEL ROAD:
Again, we were quoted about $1,000 to lay the gravel in our cemetery in both directions. Cheryl Jennings was able to get the rock donated, so we will see how that effects our price – should be less of course! Yay! Thanks Cheryl!
FENCING:
We discussed pulling up the old fencing. Although some of it is not in bad shape, majority of it is. It is also hard to weed-eat around. We are looking for anyone who would want to come and remove it, could potentially turn in the posts and metal fencing for scrap if they wish. Gary & my dad discussed putting in a split rail fence which would hold up in the weather well, be easier to trim around as well; would be pretty! 😉 I am going to see if I can get some quotes from Amish, or maybe some local boy scout troops that would be willing to donate their work towards the project. Gary did weed-eat as much as he could while his weed-eater was working :S . Thanks Gary! *Also, we plan on keeping and reusing the new gates that were recently installed.
I did get quotes from local contractors to tear out new fence and put in new black chain link but our quotes were between $6,000 – $8,000! (ouch!) We definitely do not have the funds for that kind of project right now. But, if we can get majority of the fencing project volunteered out we can potentially afford the split rail fencing. Again, I will need to gain quotes. This would likely be another fund raiser project so we do not have to pull from our annual donation funds.
For now, if we can get the old fencing out, we may be without a fence for a while but we decided that would be okay. Please contact me if you have any comments, suggestions or ideas on this that may be helpful.
DIRT/BRUSH PILES:
We had planned to remove the piles of brush that are in the back of the cemetery but realized it is actually mostly dirt pikes underneath. So what brush is there still needs hauled off. Gary Roberts had his chainsaw ready and we but back many of the saplings in the area and left one tree. Once we get the brush out, then we would like to find someone with a skid steer to merge the 3-4 piles of dirt into one to clean things up a bit.
MARKING OFF SECTIONS:
One other goal of mine is to have our cemetery sections marked off for ease of burials in the future. I have got some quotes and for the entire cemetery it will be roughly $5,000. Again, clearly unaffordable at this time but hopefully with more fundraisers we can eventually get there. If anything for the near future (few years maybe?) we can have at least the vacant sections marked since we are wanting to start offering plot sales in the largely vacant areas. For now, this is just a dream goal of mine 😉
PLAT BOOK:
Gary said that he wants to help find the plat-book. PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS EVERY DAY!!!!
FALL CLEAN UP DAY:
Last year our first fall clean up day got cancelled due to weather. I would like to tentatively schedule the next one for Sunday, October 10th. I will keep you all informed.
BOARD MEMBERS:
Lastly, I would like to let everyone know that Cheryl Jennings has joined our cemetery board, we are excited to have her and are sure she will be a big help with all of our efforts! If you are interested in joining let us know! Your current board is as follows, please reach out to any of us with questions and ideas!
President: Lesli (Burnett) Fox
Treasurer: Patty (Turpin) Dortch
Secretary: Tracy (Burnett) Brookshier
Member: Cheryl (Brown) Jennings
Thank you again to everyone who continues to donate their time and money to keep our little cemetery running!
- Tracy Brookshier, Secretary
Bethany Cemetery, Pike County, Missouri 