By Brie Handgraaf
bhandgraaf@wilsontimes.com |
252-265-7821
Repairs to Maplewood Cemetery’s entranceway arch were supposed to happen in 2020-21, Wilson city officials admit, but the work is now recommended for the fiscal year 2022-23 budget.
“Funding to replace the arch was included in the 2020-21 budget in a maintenance account,
not as a specific project designated specifically for the arch,” said Rebecca Agner, the city of Wilson’s communications and marketing director. “While this method is acceptable from a budget perspective, it led to some miscommunication between departments about the project. As you can imagine with the number of facilities the city operates, there is a long list of maintenance projects each year, so the total maintenance budget was managed for the year without the cemetery arch being completed.”
The Wilson Cemetery Commission’s past chairman, Charlie Farris, provided The Wilson Times with copies of a June 2020 email from city officials indicating repairs for the arch were on the books two budget cycles ago. The work was never started, however, prompting cemetery commissioners to discuss in February whether to pay for the repairs from the advisory panel’s budget.
“In my vote, it would be not to fix it at all and demolish it because it has become a danger as it sits now and if you fix it, how long before something else happens and it becomes more of a danger?” Commissioner Dell Joyner said during the meeting. “It’s done its usefulness. The weather has gotten it. That’s my opinion and my opinion only.”
The 1922 arch has been closed for several years, with neither motorists nor pedestrians able to use the entranceway due to concerns over its structural integrity.
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