LIVERPOOL — My old friend Mark Hettler – who was raised in Liverpool and now resides in Clay – visited the historic Liverpool Cemetery just before Memorial Day and was disappointed with the new sidewalk path from the cemetery road at the mausoleum leading up the hill that overlooks Tulip Street.
“My in-laws and other neighbors are buried at the top of the hill there,” Mark wrote last week in an email. “You used to be able to drive up the road on the Tulip Street side to get there, but that was blocked a number of years ago and is now closed off with gardens and posts. The road that used to go up there from the middle of the cemetery has now been turned into a sidewalk and also closed off with posts.
“How did they expect older people to get to the graves at the top of the hill without a road? An older person could never climb that hill, and pushing a wheelchair would be quite a feat. On my last visit the other day even the crew that cuts the grass took their truck around the posts blocking the road and drove up the hill on either side of the sidewalk leaving tire tracks and mud on either side of the sidewalk.”
Renovations under review
Three years ago, 128th District Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter secured a $250,000 grant for cemetery improvements administered through the state Dormitory Authority. Several years ago, the cemetery committee secured listings for the cemetery on both national and state Registers of Historic Places.
The committee hired Environmental Design & Research to prepare a restoration plan for the site and the Shawn Malone Excavating firm won the bid to do the work. The total cost of the renovations is $225,410, which paid for installation of the new pedestrian path pavement, benches and monument repair at the 175-year-old graveyard.
The Village Board of Trustees will discuss the various complaints the village has received about the cemetery work at their next meeting, at 7 p.m. June 21, at the village hall, 310 Sycamore St.
Graphic novel recalls Dempsey-Willard fight
Former Pennellville resident Doug Brode – who now lives in San Antonio, Texas – has written and published more than four dozen books in his career. The website goodreads.com lists 46 of his titles many of which concern popular film and television shows. His most recent is a graphic novel titled “Sand: or, Once Upon a Time in the Jazz Age.” The story focuses on real-life characters Bat Masterson and Louella Parsons, the gunfighter-turned-sportswriter and the pioneering gossip columnist.
Set in 1919, “Sand” recalls birth of the Roaring Twenties, as Parsons, the young columnist befriends an aging Bat Masterson, and together cover the fight of the century in which contender Jack Dempsey hopes to dethrone the Pottawatomie Giant, Jeff Willard, to become the next heavyweight champion of the world.
In this context the title “Sand” refers to a quality shared by the most remarkable people: solidity, dependability, worthiness.
“Sand” is illustrated by Fayetteville artist Rose Mary Casciano Moziak.
Last word
“They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who only dream at night.”
–Edgar Allan Poe
Contact the columnist at [email protected].
