2 May 2009

Dear Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery,

Friday's cemetery workday was delightful, as always. Eleven sturdy volunteers joined me at Spring Hill under cloudy skies. For the first time ever, we had to stop early - chased off by rain. Although we had to flee before quitting time, we still managed to nearly fill up our large dump truck, complete the cemetery measurements for our mapping, and obtain all specifications necessary to reproduce the wooden Finley markers that have nearly rotted away. This is the first time in our workday history that we have NOT had a lovely, sunny day.

In addition to our physical labors, we also fit in an informal "Friends" meeting at the cemetery to discuss burial issues. At Thursday's Sonoma County Volunteer Reception, Jeremy Nichols and I were fortunate to have a brief talk with Mary Burns about burial policy. Jeremy and I used the opportunity on Friday to relay that discussion to those present at our work party. Ms. Burns told Jeremy and I that Regional Parks would like to get the burial issue resolved, and had been thinking that from Regional Parks' point of view, it might be worth exploring the use of a non-profit. The non-profit could be contracted by the county to handle all burial issues. On the rare occasion of a burial request, the interested party would be directed to the non-profit who would then relay to the family wishing burial the policies under which the burial would be permitted. The family would then hire a licenced firm to handle the burial according to the policies drawn up for Spring Hill. I brought up the idea of perhaps using the Western Sonoma County Historical Society for the non-profit role. The WSCHS already is the keeper of the Spring Hill Restoration Fund, and are an integral part our restoration efforts. We discussed the possibility of using the WSCHS with Evelyn McClure, Rae Swanson, and Sally Morrison (all WSCHS members). They will bring up the idea at Tuesday's WSCHS board meeting. Jeremy Nichols will attend to provide details.

Currently, Candy Donnelly and Patsy Marcussen are drafting a document specifying policies to protect the historic nature of Spring Hill (including such crucial issues as only hand dug graves to minimize disturbance of possible remains, identifying individuals eligible for future burial in the cemetery, specifying placement of new graves so as not to impact existing graves, use of only licensed firms for burials, all costs to be born by family of the deceased, etc). This document will be used in further discussions between the "Friends" and the county, and will hopefully evolve into the set of policies under which future burials would be permitted.

Dick and Sally Giberti spent part of their time Friday measuring, studying, and photographing the six wooden Finley markers at Spring Hill. These redwood markers are in varying stages of decay, with two of them almost unreadable at this point. Dick and Sally plan to recreate the markers using vintage redwood. You can see Dick holding up James Finley's decaying marker in the last attached picture. Last year Dick and Sally did a spectacular job on the recreation of the Zilhart enclosure using vintage wood kindly donated by Sturgeon's Mill.

Our next workday is scheduled for Friday, May 29th. Our subsequent 2009 work dates are scheduled for June 19, July 17, Aug 21, Sep 18, Oct 16 and Nov 20. Please mark your calendars, and come join us when you can.