The St. John’s Cemetery Improvement Group will hold their third annual barbecue at the cemetery grounds in Garson on June 26 from 12–3 p.m.
The event raises funds to complete the rebuilding of the old wooden elevated cremation gardens in the cemetery that have started to rot out.
Five gardens have already been rebuilt and plans are in place to do another in the fall and the final one next spring.
The gardens are being rebuilt with a PIZA light brick and cap from Brown’s Concrete and will eliminate further maintenance work and costs.
The cemetery has 39 areas of responsibility that should be addressed yearly to keep all in good shape and respectable.
“We had a sit down in 2013 and looked at the worst areas that were causing yearly work and costs, and arrived at four concerning areas which included the 50-year-old aging poplars which cause 300 bags of leaves each year,” said a release from the Improvement Group.
“The badly damaged four road curbs that shape the roadway in the center of the cemetery, the road cedars in the cemetery that needed much trimming and the wooden gardens, we have completed the first three areas and are now down to two more gardens to do.”
The group will also make other improvements through to 2017 by continuous tree trimming which has helped open up the cemetery view and made things much cleaner.
Water line upgrades are planned in Section 1 and 2 to assist the seniors for water services. The group is also making parking lot improvements by adding six more parking curbs and extending the parking area to the left side.
“We have also added a flower planter at the outside entrance along with a new granite welcome sign which will compliment the entrance area and improve the image,” said the release.
