Update on fundraising, new members to cememtery board

Published 4:58 am Wednesday, October 14, 2015

The Enterprise Cemetery Maintenance District has installed two board members elected on the May 2015 ballot during the Sept. 30 meeting.

Patricia Willis was elected to a four year term and Don Perry Davis was elected to fill a two year term vacated by Lee Bollman. Board officers elected Davis as the new chairman and Willis as vice chairman.

The new board discussed fundraising progress for planned underground irrigation system and providing infrastructure for renovation of the Enterprise Cemetery. Friends of Enterprise Cemetery, the grassroots group heading up fundraising, revealed citizen donations are at $54,224, raised in the past six months. The estimate for installation of this system is $90,000. Two grants have been written to private foundations for funding assistance and are pending.

New board chair, Davis, served voluntarily as manager of the cemetery this year and reported on the summer progress aided by Jim Butner and several volunteer work parties that manicured the cemetery.

In complimenting public support Davis said, “Support to date of the cemetery renovation effort recalls a younger America, an America in which people at the community level did not sit and wait for the state or federal government to solve their problems, but instead took the initiative and put their shoulders to the wheel. In what may truly be described as a “grassroots” effort, well over 300 individuals, local businesses and churches have to date contributed to the irrigation fund.”

During the renovation period the board decided to hold public board meetings on a monthly basis at 6 p.m. on the last Wednesday at the courthouse conference room.