DUKE CENTER — The Otto Township Cemetery Committee is currently seeking legal counsel, a land surveyor, and a tree trimming specialist as it proceeds in clearing up matters legally and aesthetically in both Rixford and Duke Center cemeteries.
The matters that need to be addressed are multi-faceted and include obtaining incorporation status and/or an EIN (employer identification number), contacting local Armed Service organizations, establishing both legal deeds and boundaries, creating a database to ensure prior interments and future burials and lot purchases.
To enhance both properties, the committee is seeking not only a professional arborist but volunteers to assist in pruning and removing both unnecessary and dead trees and limbs and straighten and repair headstones and grave markers. Also on the to-do list is aerial and ground-level photography, which will aid not only in establishing proper mapping, but also, with an artist’s renderings, provide a clearer picture of the desired outcome. Signage for both cemeteries is also expected to be obtained in the near future.
Otto residents and other interested parties are encouraged to volunteer to restore these two burial grounds to their proper condition. Any questions and comments may be directed to the writer (jmakamiller@yahoo.com) or Committee chairperson Sharon Schwab (umhelp.ss@gmail.com).
