Work that has been ongoing since the fall to clean up Mount Carmel cemetery in Placentia is finally completed for the year. Work at the site finished up on Jan. 6, said Tiffany Hepditch, executive director of the Placentia Area Development Association (PADA).
“The crew did a tremendous amount of work,” said Hepditch. “They started on Oct. 17, and with nine workers hired through funding programs, they were able to complete nearly everything we had planned for the site.”
Hepditch said the workers filled and topped up 454 graves at the cemetery and repaired and/or restored 196 headstones – 44 of which were glued and 44 of which were angle-ironed to stand straight.
“The gazebo is done and signage erected and five benches have been placed throughout the cemetery. Staff went above and beyond what we expected.”
Hepditch pointed out the importance of this work being done since a number of important historical figures and businesspeople have been buried at the graveyard, and with the cemetery being where it is, on a hill in the middle of Placentia, is a popular destination for visitors as well.
Hepditch said they were also planning to compile a database of the names of people buried there but that aspect of the work has yet to be completed.
“We did manage to get over 200 names documented, but that is work we hope to continue another year,” she said. “We are hopeful for phase two of the project.”
Placentia senior Bill Barron was working free of charge at the cemetery for years, cleaning and tidying up, just as a community project for himself. But since nine people were around much of the fall to help out and get much of the work done, Mr. Barron was pleased and had a few comments for The Charter from his vacation home down south.
“(I want to offer a) special thank you to PADA executive director, Tiffany Hepditch and the PADA board for partnering with our committee which allowed us to get much-needed work done on Mount Carmel Cemetery. Thank-you to MHA Felix Collins for his support of the project and to the workers for a job well done,” said Mr. Barron on behalf of the cemetery committee. “Also I want to give a big thank you to the volunteer painters, grass cutters, headstone repair people and equipment repairman for their contributions prior to obtaining the necessary funding. Also thanks to the businesses and the people who contributed to the cemetery fund. Hopefully we can continue to make improvements in the time ahead.”
Another project PADA has been involved with is helping to fix up the Fox Harbour Community Centre, which finished Dec. 23.
Hepditch said the JCP workers hired there converted the rear of the community centre to a senior’s area and with the completion of the unisex and wheelchair accessible washrooms, and accessible entranceway to the building, as well as the converting of the power source back to electrical, the final phase of this project is completed.
This project was completed with the assistance of project coordinator Randy Traverse and nine JCP workers from the community.
Hepditch said while these projects are smaller in scale and only avail of small numbers of workers, they are invaluable to the communities in which the work gets done.
“It would take a lot more effort to get all this work completed if we didn’t receive assistance from government funding agencies like the Department of Advanced Education and Skills and other,” said Hepditch.
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