Road resurfacing is part of plan in Flomaton
Thanks to an anonymous donation to the Flomaton Cemetery Perpetual Care Trust Fund, workers were on site this week cutting trees and low-hanging limbs and the donation will be enough to allow the road through the cemetery to be repaved.
Flomaton Mayor Jim Johnson, who is currently the lone trustee of the cemetery trust fund, said the donation was given and designated or repaving and cutting trees. Johnson pointed out that the town of Flomaton does not own the cemetery property and no town money is being spent because the cemetery is private property.
The cemetery trust fund was first established in 1959 with donations. Under the agreement, the mayor of Flomaton, the Flomaton postmaster and the president of Escambia County Bank were named as trustees and only allowed to spend the interest on the trust fund to maintain the cemetery. Money was generated through the sale of lots, donations and memorials.
The original trustees were Mayor L.D. Weaver, Carl Jones, president of Escambia County Bank, and Postmistress Lois McCurdy. Today, there is no president of Escambia County Bank, which was purchased by AmeriFirst Bank, and the postmaster didn’t want to be involved. That left the mayor of Flomaton as the only trustee.
Today, no money is being added to the trust account through the sale of the lots, since all have been sold. Johnson said only donations have been available for the upkeep of the cemetery.
Johnson added that there was not enough interest generated in the trust fund account to keep the grass cut, much less other needed maintenance.
Johnson said the recent donation to the trust fund was designated to only cut trees, low-hanging limbs and to repave the road. That money cannot be used for routine maintenance, such as cutting grass or weed eating around graves.
Johnson said he solicited bids on the tree cutting and the repaving of the roads and the work was awarded to the low bidders.
He noted the tree cutting began last week and the roadwork should be done in January.
“The town has nothing to do with this,” Johnson said. “The town does not own the property and it would be illegal for the town to do work in the cemetery.”
