Washington County Enterprise-Leader
A Place To Remember Loved Ones: Farmington Cemetery Receives Upgrades
FARMINGTON — Donations to a project to pave the four short streets in Farmington Cemetery ranged from a low of $25 to a high of $7,500 from 56 individuals and 17 businesses.
With the money, Farmington Cemetery Association was able to pay for the paving and also complete some improvements for the pavilion. The association purchased six new, black metal benches for the pavilion, and paid to pave an 8-foot by 30-foot concrete walkway on the east side of the pavilion.
“I love it,” said Paul Williams, president of the cemetery association. “I think it will allow the community to actually use the pavilion even more.”
Mayor Ernie Penn started a fundraising campaign last year with a goal to bring in enough money to pave the four streets. In-kind donations helped reduce the cost of the project, which then provided a balance for the association to use on other needs.
Penn said the campaign raised $45,315 in 45 days.
“I think our community is a great community, and they blessed us with the donations they made,” Penn said. “People were sending money I hadn’t heard from in years.”
Penn said he had to give the idea for his project to his wife, Kelly. The two were walking in the cemetery and he said he was complaining about the poor condition of the roads. His wife’s response was, “Why don’t you do something about it?”
He approached Williams about a campaign to raise money to pave the streets.
Williams said when Penn said he wanted to “run” with the idea, he told him, “That sounds great.”
Williams thanked Penn for the campaign and the finished project.
The benches will provide a place for family members and friends to sit during funeral services, which will help out the funeral homes, Williams said. The paved walkway to the pavilion will also be an asset for funeral homes and guests.
Staff with the city public works department used a power washer to clean the concrete floor, ceiling, roof and wood benches at the pavilion. They also stained the benches.
Members of the cemetery association all agreed the pavilion looked much brighter and cleaner.
The high school’s agriculture department is making a new wood table to set at the front of the open-air building.
“We accomplished what we wanted done and that was getting the roads paved,” Penn said. “Anything else is gravy.”
Several members of the association board have ties to the cemetery and their relatives also served on the board.
One of the streets is named after Williams’ grandmother, Frances Williams. Another street is named after Penn’s mother, Hazel Penn. Monica Ness, another board member, has great-great grandparents, great-grandparents and her parents buried in the cemetery.
“There’s generation after generation in this cemetery,” Penn said. “It’s a generational thing and these people are carrying on the tradition.”
The land for the 12-acre cemetery was donated by Andrew Allen, who is buried in the cemetery with a stone bearing 1808-1883.