Curator inspects Grantville cemetery – The Newnan Times-Herald

The headstones in Grantville Municipal Cemetery are in need of repair.

Joey Fernandez, a cemetery curator, visited the cemetery with members of the City’s Historic Preservation Commission and the Grantville Cemetery Trust and found overturned headstones, collapsed graves and sunken markers.

According to a report by Fernandez to the HPC, it will cost $ 6,500 to repair the graves in the cemetery.

Marion Cieslik, president of the GCT, said he was not sure at this time if the GCT was able to pay for the renovations to the cemetery.

“The city controls the funds, and we need to have a joint meeting between the HPC and the GCT and look carefully and see what we can do,” Cieslik said. “I don’t know if we have that kind of money available. The city is probably spending $ 10,000 a year to do what it needs to do there.”

Fernandez said a few of the large obelisks in the cemetery leaned over and were about to fall if they were to be hit by a lawn mower.

“There is a certain point where gravity starts to speed up the process,” he said. “Eventually, everything will end up on the pitch, even if it’s taken care of.”

According to Fernandez, the obelisks will require a new foundation.

The deterioration of the cemetery is in part the result of lime mortar used in the late 1800s, when some of the first plots were buried, Fernandez said.

The lime mortar breaks down and sinks some of the graves. Lawn mowers and other equipment moving through these spaces can speed up the process, Fernandez said.

To fix cracked and broken headstones, Fernandez said if he was hired he would apply a material called akepox, a construction adhesive, to the graves, after cleaning the stones.

The cracks would then be filled with the same stone as the marker and lime mortar which is softer than the marble used in the stones to prevent further damage due to expansion in cold and freezing weather.

Fernandz said the damage to the cemetery was caused by nature and the weather.

“I wouldn’t point the finger in any direction,” he said. “Just all things must stand.”

After Fernandez’s visit, the renovation efforts by HPC and GCT slowed down.

The HPC and GCT were planning to appear before the city’s administrative committee to encourage the town to help with the renovation of the cemetery, but council member Mark King, the current chairman of the administrative committee, lost re-election to the council. municipal.

Selma Coty, president of the HPC, said King wanted to wait until after the city council elections to meet with members of the HPC and GCT.

Now Coty has said both groups plan to wait until a new administrative committee is appointed in January.

“At this time, we have no reason to try to continue a meeting with the administrative committee until after the first of the year,” Coty said.