Cross Creek Township, Fort Cherry School District
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•Date: Feb. 19
•Action: Cross Creek Township Board of Supervisors voted to donate $2,500 to restoration efforts at the historic Cross Creek Cemetery.
Supervisor Gary Stokum said once the board received approval from their solicitor, helping out the cemetery was an easy choice.
“Once we had the OK to allocate some funds, we decided to help them preserve that portion of our history in Cross Creek Township,” Stokum said. “There’s a lot of great history here in Washington County.”
Stokum said the Cross Creek Cemetery Co., the nonprofit restoration company that oversees efforts at the historical site, had come to the board in order to seek donations. The cemetery has been in existence since 1739, and over the years numerous markers and gravestones had been vandalized or misplaced.
After researching the legal appropriateness of donating public funds to a cemetery, solicitor William Johnson gave them the green light.
“There are a number of gravesites at the cemetery, including from the Revolutionary and Civil wars,” Stokum said. “This money will help to make sure the tombstones make it to the right place. It will help them protect that history.”
For more information on the Cross Creek Cemetery Co., call Ethel Sentipal at 724-947-4079.
• Next meeting: March 19 at 7:30 p.m.
• Date: Feb. 19
• Action: During a non-voting committee meeting, Fort Cherry School District moved one step closer to hiring a full-time security officer.
Business manager Paul Sroka said the board had been considering whether the district would hire its own full-time officer or sign a contract to pay for services from a local police force. The committee, which makes recommendations to the full board, recommended that the district hire its own security officer.
Sroka said recent events in Sandy Hook, Conn., emphasized the importance of the decision, but that it was on the board’s radar since the district’s current security officer, Harold Purdy, went into semi-retirement last year.
The board will vote on whether to accept the committee’s recommendations during the March 25 meeting.
• Next meeting: March 25 at 7:30 p.m.