By Russ Tarby
Contributing Writer
At the Sept. 17 meeting of the Village of Liverpool Board of Trustees, Village Cemetery Committee Chairman Mike Romano briefly outlined ongoing plans for improvements at the 172-year-old graveyard.
In January, the village board and 128th District Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter announced that the village had received a $250,000 grant administered through the state Dormitory Authority earmarked for cemetery renovations.
The cemetery committee headed by Romano has been meeting for more than four years during which it secured listings for the cemetery on both national and state Registers of Historic Places.
In its discussions about how to spend the state grant money, Romano said the committee is “all about reducing maintenance costs.” For instance, the steep grassy berms on the cemetery’s north and east sides are extremely difficult to maintain, so the committee will recommend new green vegetation which will not require mowing.
At the trustees’ next meeting on Oct. 15, they will hear more specifics from representatives from Environmental Design & Research, a Syracuse-based landscape architecture consulting firm hired by the cemetery committee.
Several aging trees located in the cemetery need to be removed, Romano said, and new tree plantings could replace them. Mayor Gary White asked Romano to coordinate those efforts with the Village Tree Committee, which was established here last year.
New walkways and granite benches are also being planned at the historic cemetery which was established in 1846, bounded on the east and west by Tulip and Alder streets and by Fifth and Sixth streets on the south and north.
Cemetery rules and regulations are likely to be revisited.
“Our focus has been restoration and reduction of maintenance,” Romano said, “but the rules haven’t been addressed in many years, and they should be.” For instance, plot owners should be prohibited from planting perennials because they spread uncontrollably, he said, and lighting on individual gravesites should be limited.
