LIVERPOOL — The Liverpool village government and this newspaper have received several complaints from residents about the difficulty faced by elderly or disabled mourners trying to climb the Village Cemetery hill.
For decades the hill was accessible to motor vehicles climbing from the mausoleum road easterly upward toward Tulip Street. There was even dual access provided at the cobblestone abutment facing Tulip Street, access which is now denied due to safety issues.
“My in-laws and other neighbors are buried at the top of the hill there,” Mark Hettler wrote earlier this month to the Star-Review. “The road that used to go up there from the middle of the cemetery has now been turned into a sidewalk and 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.”
At its monthly meeting on June 21, the Liverpool Village Board of Trustees heard Trustee Matt Devendorf suggest renting a golf cart to carry seniors and others up the hill on designated dates.
“That’s a good possibility,” said Mayor Gary White. “Otherwise, I really don’t know how to address this.”
Juniper in jeopardy
White also reported that 34 of a couple hundred creeping junipers planted last year along the northern and eastern cemetery slopes have died and another dozen are faring poorly.
The low-growing shrub — a species named Juniperus horizontalis nicknamed “Blue Rug” — was planted to make maintenance easier because the new vegetation will not require mowing.
The mayor consulted with professional horticulturist Tim Ballantyne, who lives in Liverpool, and Ballantyne confirmed that the cemetery’s new creeping juniper is in jeopardy.
White also expressed concern about the lack of new grass alongside the new paved path up the cemetery hill.
Three years ago, 128th District Assemblywoman Pamela Hunter secured a $250,000 grant for cemetery improvements administered by the state Dormitory Authority. Prior to that, the village 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 at the total cost of $225,410, which paid for installation of the new pedestrian path pavement at the 175-year-old graveyard.
EDR will continue to monitor the situations, White said, and he expects some mitigation of the juniper plantings and lawn maintenance. The village will also explore Devendorf’s golf-cart brainstorm.
Four mishaps in May
Provisional Liverpool Police Chief Jerry Unger reported via memo to trustees on June 21 that the LPD made 211 traffic stops in April, and officers issued 183 citations for violations of the state’s vehicle and traffic laws.
Four traffic accidents were investigated last month, and one parking ticket was written. Officers made 122 residential checks and 584 business checks during May while responding to a total of 596 incidents and calls for service
The LPD arrested 11 individuals last month on 17 criminal charges.
At the opening of the June 21 trustees meeting, Mayor Gary White administered the oath of office sworn by the LPD’s newest full-time Officer Taylor Zinter.
A 2020 police academy graduate, Zinter had been employed part-time here for the past six months. The son and grandson of former police officers, Zinter previously worked part time for the villages of Chittenango and Pulaski.
