The restoration is moving along at the cemetery!  The city completed replacement of missing curbs, rehabilitation of surrounding streets and construction of a storm drain.  They also be installing a waterline, sidewalks and streetlights to the area.  The street lights are beautiful!  Thank you to our great city for coming through and helping us!  A new fence is in and the caps to the pillars have been added. The fence is fantastic and we want to thank Acrey Fence for all their hard work!  Sprinklers have been installed and areas are being leveled to allow proper drainage.  This involves about 200 headstones being raised.  See January 2008 Update below for how this work is being accomplished.  The the endowment is growing and a major campaign is in the works to begin soon.  We hope to raise an additional $1.3 million!  The 3rd Annual Riverside Founders Celebration is being planned for June 7, 2008.  This target date to be done with our restoration tasks is also the same date as our celebration! The home tour will include 4 beautiful homes (the original homeowners are buried in Evergreen Cemetery)!   Stay tuned for future updates!  Below are a few pictures showing work being done this month.

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Surface grading work is presently being done at the Cemetery that at first glance may appear to be disturbing existing grave sites. We wanted to assure you that this is not the case. Through the years, because of poor drainage, some limited portions of the Cemetery grounds have eroded, and settled in low spots, covering many of the headstones, especially in times of heavy rains.  This grading is intended to restore and stabilize the surface under those headstones so these problems can be avoided in the future.

Some headstones will be temporarily removed and the lowest spots will be filled and the elevations raised with earth that has been excavated on site from the foundation for the fence and the installation of the irrigation system.  After all this earth has been relocated, the headstones will be repositioned in the exact positions from which they were removed. The subsurface gravesites will in no way be disturbed. Only the headstones will be removed temporarily.  This is being accomplished by the use of the most advanced GPS (global positioning system) technology under the supervision of Linda Bowman.

The reuse of surplus soils within the boundaries of the Cemetery will have the added benefit of avoiding the traffic and pollution from the diesel trucks and equipment that would otherwise be needed to import new dirt or haul the existing dirt away.  It will also avoid hauling more dirt off to a dumpsite.

The Restoration Committee has always been and will continue to be mindful of its obligation to respect those who are buried at the Cemetery and their environment.  The Committee has not nor will it allow any activity that may in    any way contribute to the pollution of the land, air, or water surrounding the Cemetery.

Evergreen Memorial Historic Cemetery is and will always be an environmentally friendly place.