I am writing on behalf of the Oak Hill Cemetery Association in regard to the June 5 letter to the editor about the condition of the cemetery.
The Oak Hill Cemetery Association was organized in 2008. It is comprised of a number of highly motivated, longtime Bradfordians. For those unaware, the cemetery is located just off East Main Street on 30 acres on a hillside. It is roughly 150 years old.
The cemetery has 13,000 internments with 7,000 monuments and markers. All of these years has taken a major toll on the landscape. Time and vandalism has been a compelling and bad combination for us.
The cost to maintain this is staggering. It costs nearly $5,000 per cutting and we mow it six to seven times a year. That doesn’t cover the washed-out roads or fallen-down trees. Without private donations we wouldn’t survive. This current spring has been a major challenge with rain and wind damage.
As for the board, we volunteers help carry caskets to grave sites, pray next to people we never met, remove trees, do accounting and secretarial work for free, beg for money at Stinkfests and entertain events for fourth-graders and numerous fireworks. On too many occasions we have taken money from our own pockets to make mowing deadlines.
In closing, I would like to ask ANYONE, including the lady from Lakewood, N.Y., to assist us by either making a monetary donation or, even better, joining us on the board of directors to help us with this historic landmark for years to come.
