By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
Serendipity smiled on the village of Liverpool on Memorial Day 2016, when new 128th District Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter found herself on the stage at Johnson Park seated between Liverpool’s deputy mayor, Dennis Hebert, and Village Cemetery Committee Chairman Dr. Michael Romano.
That day Romano delivered a keynote address as part of the annual Memorial Day ceremony hosted by American Legion Post 188. He noted that his committee had secured Liverpool Cemetery listings on both national and state Registers of Historic Places. Romano said he hoped those official designations would help the cemetery qualify for government grants to fund future upkeep and renovation.
The proverbial light bulb flickered above Hunter’s head.
Now, less than two years after that chance meeting, the assemblywoman has delivered on her promise to help. Hunter appeared to the Jan. 24 meeting of the Liverpool Village Board of Trustees to announce a $250,000 grant administered through the state Dormitory Authority, earmarked for cemetery improvements.
“Really this is all thanks to my fellow veterans,” Hunter told the trustees. “I had served in the U.S. Army and that’s why I was invited to your Memorial Day ceremony. Had I not been sitting on the stage that day between Dennis Hebert and Dr. Romano, I might not have known about the cemetery project.”
Romano described the cemetery, established in 1846, as “a national treasure.”
Tentative improvements could include informational signs, renovated walkways and driveable paths, benches, lighting, landscaping and monument repair.
The committee has engaged the services of a consultant, Environmental Design & Research, to prepare a restoration, long-term maintenance and preservation plan for the site.
Formally created July 21, 2014, the village Cemetery Committee, chaired by Dr. Michael Romano, also includes Bob Gaetano, Judi Hebert, Yvette Hewitt, Roberta Marks, Peter Osborne, Anthony Ostuni and Kelley Romano. Ex officio members include Liverpool Mayor Gary White, Superintendent of Public Works Bill Asmus, village historian Dorianne Elitharp Gutierrez and Ken Palmer, commander of American Legion Post 188.
“You know best what your village and town wants,” Hunter told the committee members who attended the Jan. 24 announcement. “These things are very important to your quality of life here.”
Liverpool Mayor Gary White, a Republican, thanked Hunter, a Democrat, for her help with the state grant.
More than 3,500 people have been buried in the cemetery over its 172-year history. The cemetery is bounded on the east and west by Tulip and Alder streets and by Fifth and Sixth streets on the south and north. Two roads run crosswise through the cemetery.
Approximately 200 plots remain vacant, and another dozen or so are available for cremains only. Originally part of the state’s Salt Springs Reservation, it was eventually deeded from the state to the village with the understanding that the land would always remain a cemetery.
