Fisher's Hill Preservation Project

Have received word from the City of Portsmouth that the Navy at the Portsmouth Shipyard will be sending over roughly 100 volunteers for a 4 hour clean-up. Can we say amazing!??! Now, if only all of them show up, it'll be truly amazing. But I'll be happy if even 20 show up!!!

Stopped by the cemetery to see how the grass mowing contract is going. Seems like the hired workers are doing a wonderful job of keeping the grass at a manageable level. Only problem is that they are apparently not tasked with picking up the growing amount of limbs. There's no way I can take them out by myself. Or, if I did, it would take me quite a long time.

Yes, I know I'm late with any updates for the cemetery. Been overseas for four months co I'm trying to catch up. Think I've handled that pretty well in the last two weeks. We've made a lot of progress with getting the Chicora Foundation out to see us. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get the full $5k for the grant so the Foundation has to scale back what they are able to provide for us.

Mr. Grund has been working with Mrs. Windley on the veterans listing for the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. I know they have been working pretty hard on consolidating the lists that are out there as well as correcting any errors.

Mrs. Haywood has been going insane with the library renovations as well as the Chicora Foundation grant. But she has been a trooper and kept me up to date on the progress while I was overseas.

So, the day after I got back I hopped right back into it. Got knee deep in the vines, branches, limbs and poison ivy. Yep, one more time, covered in poison ivy. I'll never learn. Also, have worked out access rights to the Paupers cemetery in the back of the PRHA property. Boy, we've definitely got a long way to go to get that looking proper.

In case you missed them, here are some articles from the Virginia Pilot about the cemetery.

Discovery Underscores Grim Condition of Historic Portsmouth Cemeteries
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/07/discovery-underscores-grim-condition-historic-portsmouth-cemeteries

Historic African American Cemeteries Need Care & Repairs
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/02/historic-african-american-cemeteries-need-care-and-repairs

City Could Add More Land to Historic Cemetery
http://hamptonroads.com/2009/07/city-could-add-more-land-historic-cemetery

Woman Advocates for Damaged Cemetery
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/02/woman-advocates-tidy-damaged-cemetery

Volunteers Help Clean Pourtsmouth Cemetery
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/03/volunteers-help-clean-portsmouth-cemetery

Sorry if my posts have been few and far between. I'm out of country and the last two months have been hectic trying to take care of work responsibilities. Won't be home till summer, but by then, I'll be itching to get back in the cemetery.

After my latest voice of opinion to the Portsmouth City Council, one community volunteer has stepped, no, I should say, jumped forward and helped take a burden off the city. Fallen tree cutting and removal of brush was accomplished by Mr. Daniel Causey. Thank you, Mr. Causey.

Had a call from a Virginia Pilot reporter about the emails I send to city council in regards to the downed trees in the cemetery. Unfortunately, the editor doesn't want to run with the story now, but maybe in a week or two, if the city has still done nothing, the story might run. It'll be interesting to see what the snow storm this weekend does to the dead trees still standing.

I would like it noted that the citizens of Portsmouth are still waiting for the downed trees and limbs at Mt Calvary Cemetery to be removed. This debris is from the Nor' Easter, November 14. It has now been over two months and there has been no action taken by the city.  

I have requested several times that the city come out and cut the logs into manageable pieces. I've even voluteered to move the cut wood to Pulaski Blvd for trash removal. So far, this request has been pushed to side. I say that, because I get no response from the city, other than a few council members. Not one worker from the city has contacted me to say that there is a plan in action.  

I finally got tired of waiting so I used my personal chain saw with what little fuel I had to cut some of the limbs into smaller pieces. There is still a tree blocking one of the roads but at least families don't have to go picking their way over limbs and branches to get to their loved ones plots.  

Can someone please let me know what the city is planning on doing for these trees? As soon as I hear from someone, I'll be more than glad to quit writing council about these matters.

Stopped by to see how much flooding there was and if any limbs had dropped or trees had fallen. Amazingly, only one tree is toppled over, there's a few branches. But there is definitely a lot of flooding.

I thought I was only going to mow but I ended up finding part of a stone and 3/4 of another stone. I did flag a ton of potential stones to work on. It is incredible how much work there is to do.

I finally got to use my dad's trailer. Can haul everything now but parking it is a bitch!