FARMINGTON -- A letter asking for donations to pave the four short streets in Farmington Cemetery generated more than $45,000 in 45 days, enough to cover the project plus have some left over for other improvements at the cemetery, according to Mayor Ernie Penn.
"It is a blessing how our community and businesses came together and opened up their hearts to help make this project become a reality," Penn said in a recent email with an update on the project.
Penn made it his personal mission to raise money to improve the streets after seeing the poor condition they were in while walking in the cemetery for exercise.
He contacted Paul Williams, president of the Farmington Cemetery Board, and asked permission to start a campaign to raise money for the project. The streets in the cemetery are not dedicated to the city, so private funds had to be used for the project.
The board gave the OK to the campaign and Penn mailed a letter to more than 100 individuals and businesses asking if they would donate to the association to get the roads leveled and overlaid with 2 inches of new asphalt.
Penn said the association received $24,210 in donations from 17 businesses and $21,115 from 57 individuals for a total of $45,312. The final bid price for the basic work was $33,800 from Tomlinson Asphalt, which included reduced labor cost from Tomlinson and a discount on the asphalt from APAC.
Tomlinson finished the project last week, paving Frances Williams Drive, Hazel Penn Drive, Lucy Phillips Drive and Lois Smith Drive, all located within the cemetery's 12-acre boundaries.
Williams expressed his appreciation to Penn for coming up with the idea, taking the lead to mail out letters, solicit donations and coordinate the project.
"I just want to say thank you to Ernie Penn," Williams said. "We have a beautiful cemetery to begin with and this is going to make it more appealing to the eye than it already is."
Williams said the paved streets also will improve egress and ingress off Double Springs Road.
Williams said the association has had the streets graded in the past but had not talked about paving the roads because of the cost.
He was not surprised, however, that businesses and individuals responded to the project.
"We have a close-knit community and we came together. It's very good for the community," Williams said.
The association's next meeting is in January. Williams said the agenda will include discussing how to use the remaining money from the fundraising campaign.
Dee Ness, vice-president of the cemetery board, said the earliest gravestones in the cemetery date to the 1860s. Earlier burials, marked with field stones, may have been from the late 1850s when the Ebenezer Meeting House was first built on the cemetery property.
The Meeting House was primarily used as a Methodist church but also as a school house and community gathering place. Later, it was used as a Baptist Church until the 1870s.
Ness, who has researched Farmington history, said early obituaries from the 1800s and 1900s often refer to the cemetery as the Ebenezer Cemetery.
Another history document says the Farmington Cemetery is distinctive because many complete families are buried there. The land was donated by Andrew Allen, who is buried in the cemetery with a stone bearing 1808-1883.
