By Charlotte Smith
During this holiday season many wonder about the condition of one local cemetery in Bladen County. The Elizabethtown City Cemetery behind the Bladen County Public Library in Elizabethtown has shown significant geological damage since Hurricane Florence. Even with the holidays in full swing, the Town of Elizabethtown and contracted specialists have been working toward solutions for the resting area.
Mark Potratz with GEO Technologies has sent email updates to Town of Elizabethtown Manager, Eddie Madden. Potratz confirmed the soil borings in the area have been completed and the samples are being analyzed. He also said the analyzed soil findings would be in a report, according to an email he sent to Madden on November 29, 2018.
On Tuesday, December 4, Madden received another email from Portratz about planning a meeting the week of December 17 to discuss the collaboration on the alternatives and the associated costs for the recommendations. Scott Simon, with W.K. Dickson, Portratz and town officials will be in the meeting together sometime during the week of December 17th.
“So it looks like we are about 10 days from having more answers,” Madden said in reference to the cemetery soil borings project.
Lloyd Walker, a local surveyor in Elizabethtown, set benchmarks out after the soil damage was noticed.
“No alerts have been made,” Madden said, when asked if there had been any more geological movements in the area.
FEMA was contacted this week by town officials and provided with preliminary cost estimates, according to Madden. The federal agency offered tech support and will be reviewing the application for funding regarding the cemetery, Madden added.
Madden continued, the cost estimate most likely will change and may increase greatly and FEMA is aware of that.
The road is closed for motorists, however, the cemetery is not closed, Madden reported. Pedestrians may visit the cemetery at their leisure. He added, some areas in the cemetery may not be safe to walk on due to the geological changes.
The town officials have made reference to a new location for a cemetery in Elizabethtown, but more work has to be done with the property before it may be used as a cemetery. The proposed new cemetery location will be near Airport Road. Madden said the town did receive approval from the Director of Aviation to move forward with the proposed project in the area, however, Madden said the town is waiting on the engineering work at the current cemetery before more work will be done at a new location.
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