This stump in Riverside Cemetery is all that’s left of the blue spruce shattered by lightning on Aug. 17, 2024.
When lightning last month smashed a blue spruce, one of the tallest trees in Riverside Cemetery in Albany, it also dealt a financial blow.
A well supplies the cemetery’s irrigation sprinklers during the summer. Pam Dodson, board secretary of the Riverside Cemetery Association, reports that the lightning strike fried the well’s pump and the electrical panel that powers it.
The estimate for repairing or replacing the panel and pump is $29,600.
“Without the receipt of an outpouring of support, we will not be able to maintain the cemetery’s parklike setting,” Dodson wrote in an email.
The cemetery got a tree professional to clear away what was left of the spruce after lightning shattered it on Aug. 17. The bill for that was $2,200.
Riverside Cemetery, covering more than 9 acres north of the west end of Seventh Avenue, occupies land donated in 1847 by Walter Monteith, one of Albany’s founders. There have been more than 6,000 burials since.
“Although there are no plots left for sale, we are selling niches for cremains in our columbarium,” Dodson said in her email.
Also from her email:
“The cemetery board would greatly appreciate any donations. Over the years revenue from the sale of plots and interment fees financed the cemetery’s operations. As these revenue streams have become practically nonexistent, we depend upon donations as our main source of income. The board has done a great job of managing the monies entrusted to them but even before the lightning strike we were running in the red. In 2024 alone we have had to remove a maple tree ($2,000) and repair the subsequent damage to fencing ($3,500) from last winter’s ice storm and put a new roof ($4,500) on our maintenance building… Checks made payable and mailed to Riverside Cemetery at PO Box 687, Albany, OR 97321 will be acknowledged for the donor’s records.”
On Monday I walked the bike on to the cemetery to look at the spruce’s stump and count the tree rings.
Not all of them are easy to see, but as best I could tell, the spruce was around 95 or 100 years old. (hh)
Counting the rings on the spruce’s stump was not all that easy.
Thanks for all the information, Hasso.
I admire them trying to maintain the property, and many graves… several of my family members are buried there.
I don’t know how they have survived this long, and what happens to the gravesites if they literally “go under”?
I’m hoping there are special grants that protect them, and maintain the grounds.
I regularly attend the cemetery tours held once a year. I have never seen a donation request. Maybe that is something they should consider.
Perhaps the solution is a COA (Cemetery Owners Association), similar to an HOA. Monthly fees collected would suffice to manage conditions at the locale. The fee charged to occupants and/or the occupants’ heirs. Those who benefit from the cemetery’s presence pay for the privilege.
Maybe a GoFundMe page someone can set up
I did some research and there are several grants for cemeteries to maintain them, restore headstones and other issues. It is worth a try to see if they can get one or perhaps an ongoing one to pay for long term care. All they have to do is look up grants for historic cemeteries and they might be surprised how many are out there. There is also local grants like Linn County Curtural trust and also ones thru the state and Federal government.