(5/30) The cemetery Board of Trustees of the Fairfield Union Cemetery announced that they are accepting volunteers to help maintain the historic property at 5020 Fairfield Road,
Burials in the cemetery, which amount to approximately 2300, include the graves of veterans dating as far back as the Civil War. The trustees, who have been researching and recording all veterans who are interred in the cemetery for the past few years, should be certain that all veteran graves are properly recognized with a marker.
With the aid of the Adams County Veterans Association, the board has secured 386 veteran markers denoting in which war any given veteran served. During Memorial Day week, flags are also placed in each of the grave markers, and the flags remain in place, until Veterans Day.
The cemetery was separated from Zion Lutheran Church in 1946, and a volunteer board of trustees was formed shortly thereafter.
Cemetery board of trustees’ President Coleen Reamer said the cemetery encompasses the Fairfield area, and that any citizen who would like to be involved in the care and operation of the cemetery is welcome to do so. The board of trustees can be reached by mail at Fairfield Union Cemetery, P.O. Box 491, Fairfield, PA 17320, or by contacting our caretaker, Larry Dick, at 717-642-5584.
On a related note, the Hamiltonban Township Board of Supervisors voted at their May 19 meeting to permit Fairfield Union Cemetery caretaker to utilize the township dumpster to dispose of cemetery waste.
Reamer said that the cemetery has always burned old flowers in a burn pit at the cemetery, but "We consider that to be more and more a liability. No one wants a fire to get away and sometimes people throw things in there that are not burnable."
The board will, as of June 30, discontinue the practice of burning in the pit and will have their excavator close it in and seed it over.
In lieu of burning, the trustees asked the township if trash and waste gathered while maintaining the graves and grounds could be deposited in the township dumpster, especially since not a great deal of trash was generated during the cleanups. The township supervisors unanimously approved the request.
