Looking for Junior Partner

LOOKING FOR A JUNIOR PARTNER

Note from your neighbor, Kay Gilmour:

I am NOT looking for a replacement - I'm looking for someone younger than me who would like to become involved in preserving our cemetery and willing to share in some of the fun stuff we could do and eventually take over the reins.

For the past 20 or so years, the neighbors have looked to me as the keeper of the flame at the cemetery.  What that has amounted to has been to act as a  point person to collect information from the outside world, a coordinator of events, and an occasional guide for visitors.  This "leadership" position probably consumed about 8 hours of my time this past year.  Not a very strenuous task.

MINIMUM TIME PER YEAR as "Leader"

• 30 minutes to put out a couple of notices to the community for cemetery cleanup.
• 30 minutes of phone conversations with the lawn service that mows and weed-wacks.
• 10 minutes of phone conversations with the unofficial treasurer of St. Nicholas to make sure that the lawn service is being paid from the monies collected from neighborhood dues and Christmas Luminarias.  (They charge $100 per cut - about 10 times a year.)

MY OTHER "DUTIES" 

I have done the following just for the fun of it and out of general interest

• Given a talk to the Southern Genealogy's Exchange Society
• Attended meetings of the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Consortium as an unofficial representative of the St. Nicholas Neighborhood. 
• I will be giving  a talk at the Consortium's May meeting over at the Mudville Grill followed by a walk-through of the grounds. 
• Started the blog from the book written about the cemetery.

LONG TERM PLAN

I would really like to get our cemetery designated as a national historical site and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Cleanup April 1

Date: Saturday, April 1

Time: Cleanup - 8 AM to 9 AM
Just a reminder of the cemetery cleanup this coming Saturday, April 1st. The lawn service will do their part during the week so most of the leaves will be mulched up but bring some leaf bags with you for those the big mowers can't reach. Let's tidy up and meet your neighbors.

Time: Demonstration - 9 AM - 9:30 AM
At 9 AM, there will be a demonstration on how to clean stones without harming them. Come for that even if you can't participate in cleanup.  Chairs will be provided.

Helpful Tools: 

• Battery powered blower - helps to clear leaf debris into piles from hard to reach places.
• Hand clippers
• Leaf Rakes
• Leaf Bags
• Tree limb clippers - Trim dead limbs off the sago palms.
• Hand saws and Power saws - There is a huge limb from the magnolia down in the back corner. It's too big for us to completely remove but we should be able to whittle away at some of its smaller parts. Goes with the answer to the question, "How do you eat an elephant?'  "One bite a a time."
• Small Water bucket and a couple of old rags - Try your hand at cleaning a stone.