News
Grant sought for fencing for historic cemetery
Posted on April 3, 2018
Originally published in the Times Daily.
City officials are hoping a grant will provide fencing to deter vandals from doing any more damage to one of Russellville’s oldest cemeteries.
The city council has applied for a 50-50 matching grant through the Muscle Shoals Heritage Area that would be used to purchase and erect fencing around the Old Town Cemetery on Washington Avenue in downtown Russellville.
Mayor David Grissom said the grant is for $5,700.
Last year, it was discovered that vandals had damaged some of the old historic headstones and grave markers in the Sadler Cemetery on Jackson Avenue and Old Town Cemetery.
Local historians said some of the graves in the two cemeteries date back to the 1700s.
City Councilman William Nale, who lives near Old Town Cemetery, said the council has already installed a wooden fence at the Sadler Cemetery. Hopefully through the grant, they can fence in the Old Town Cemetery.
“Old Town Cemetery is larger, so it is going to cost. Instead of a wooden fence, it’s going to have to be metal,” he said. “We’re trying to protect our history.”