I responded to an e-mail today and thought some of the information in my
response might be of interest to members of the INPRCRP. I've revised that
message and included it below.
Lois
The Clark County Cemetery Preservation Committee was incorporated as an
Indiana non-profit corporation in October 1997. We have monthly meetings
and move the meetings from township to township (we happen to have 12
townships). After the meetings, we tour pioneer cemeteries in that
township. (This is a big drawing card, I believe.)
We are trying to find people to serve as Township Captains for each of the
12 townships. The "Captain" helps us in the identification process and,
when we find a site that is in particularly bad (but salvageable) condition,
the Captain tries to garner resources from throughout the community to
restore the cemetery.
For instance, as Jeffersonville Township Captain, I have "adopted" the
McClintick/Sylvester Cemetery here. I have done a bit of work there myself,
but the bulk of what's been accomplished has been done through personal
pleas and telephone calls.
Superior Court Judge Steven Fleece has offered us the services of his Clark
County Community Service Corps (people working off community service
sentences). (1) These are not "hardened criminals" and (2) they are
strictly supervised by a hard taskmaster in the form of their probation
officer, Joe Renck.
I don't plan on getting in trouble with the law in
Clark County cause I don't want to work that hard. :-)
The Community Service Corps has helped us on several projects, and we've got
plenty more for them to do!
The local Jaycees tried to help us on Memorial Day weekend, but we got
rained out.
It's my theory that we can get SHORT-term commitments from all sorts of
groups of people. You know, tell them, "We need your help on such-and-so
date at such-and-so time for 3 or 4 hours." Response to that sort of
request is going to be a lot better than, "Come to our meetings and get
involved in our project" approaches. You won't find many inclined to making
long-term commitments. As always, there will be a core group of folks
involved who will do most of the planning and a great deal of the actual work.
The National ACteens convention was here in Louisville a couple of weeks ago
and I signed up for two teams of teenage volunteers to come help me clean at
McClintick. They nearly filled a huge dumpster [provided by the Township
Trustee] with natural debris. (Fortunately, there's very little garbage in
this one.)
When the Community Service Corps finishes removing some more of the trees,
the Township Trustee is going to have the stumps ground out.
I've got an Eagle Scout who is planning on taking on the McClintick project,
as soon as it is approved by his Scout master. He hopes to be finished by
August, which seems to me to be a bit ambitious, but I've got my fingers
crossed.
One of our Captains has taken on the task of harassing a particular Township
Trustee. He has ONE cemetery to maintain and it hasn't been touched in at
least two years. To top it all off, he is the Chairman of the Democratic
Party in Clark County. If he doesn't straighten up and fly right soon,
we'll take the matter to the papers and see what kind of response we get
then. He has at least a $750 a year budget just for maintaining this one
cemetery and he hasn't touched it.
I got a phone call the other night from a gentleman who got my number from
some of my friends involved in this project. He wants to clean up a local
cemetery and I'm offering him some advice and loaned him a probe.
We're slowly but surely making a dent but, these cemeteries didn't get in
this sad shape overnight. They're not going to get cleaned up overnight either.
Good luck on YOUR projects.
Lois
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Clark County, Indiana Cemeteries Page:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/5881
Next CCCPC Meeting: Saturday, 8-1-98, Sellersburg Library, 2 PM
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