Mount Vernon Cemetery Commission members Mary Evans and Tim Legore addressed the City Council March 2 to discuss recent public notices about spring and summer gravestone upkeep.
“One public notice listed 30 gravestones that were identified by conservator John Heider in need of restoration,” Evans said.
Heider initially identified more than 100 gravestones in need of repair in 2021 at the request of the Mount Vernon Historical Preservation Committee. He trained commission members last summer to property and safely repair the gravestones.
“The Cemetery Commission has formed four teams who are volunteering their time and have purchased only equipment to level, repair, and reset those 30 gravestones,” Evans said.
Heider’s cost estimate for restoring all of the gravestones listed in the first public notice is $5,650.
The commission knows there isn’t money in the city’s budget for this project right now, Evans said, but members said they will do the work themselves as volunteers. They asked the city to provide CA6 gravel needed to level the headstones.
“We’ve started out small,” Legore said. “We’ve done [the] six or seven that Mary put in the paper and are working our way up a little bit. We’ll have some training before we do anything much larger, but I feel quite comfortable with what we’re doing now.”
CA6 gravel is commonly used in construction, and is a mixture of crushed stone and fine particles. The average cost of CA6 ranges from $22 to $33 per ton.
The second public notice that the commission ran listed 10 additional headstones in need of repair, with each stone weighing over 3,000 pounds. Besides the CA6 gravel, the commission has also asked for $2,700 to hire Pam Krause, owner of the Monticello Monument Company, to restore any stones that are leaning at a dangerous angle.
“Krause is willing to train the commission members and volunteers [on] how to restore [these] large gravestones,” Evans said.
City officials have told Evans there is no city funding for the project at this time, she said, but Evans hopes there may be money available through upcoming community events. Until then, volunteers will be restoring identified gravestones in need of minor repair using self-supplied equipment.
Besides Evans, Ruth Horton, Machele Pelkey, Eric Siggins, and Mike Woods make up the five members on the Mount Vernon Cemetery Commission. The commission was established in 2024 and serves as an advisory board for the council regarding the city’s cemetery needs. The group meets every second Tuesday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at Mount Vernon City Hall.