To the editor:
I wish to reply to Linda Wark’s letter about the state of the cemetery on the River Road in Caribou also known as the Cochran Cemetery. For the last seven and half years, two local men have taken upon themselves to mow and clean the cemetery (Jay Bullard and myself), using our mower, tools and gas. Before that it had been a few years since anyone had been there to maintain the cemetery.
Shortly after we started mowing the cemetery, we asked the Aroostook County Genealogy Society to help with a general cleanup to remove the fallen debris and help to remove a few trees that needed to be disposed of. Nearly every year Jay and I asked the group to help with general cleanup when it was more that what the two us could do by ourselves.
This summer, as any local resident knows, Caribou has experienced a large number of severe storms that downed many trees. I asked a member of our genealogical group who had a chainsaw, Orlan Smith of Presque Isle, if he could help out. Over the last few months, he came and cut down trees that have fallen on at least seven occasions and cleared the area of the major debris after the storms. He even got a friend of his to come help with a particular nasty tree. On two of these occurrences members of the genealogical society have been able to assist us with some of the cleanup, specifically Allen Voisine, Donald `Spike’ Savage and myself. Most of the time he has done this work by himself. Jay and I have picked some of the left over debris after he had been there.
If Linda Wark had come after one or more of the nasty storms, yes, indeed, the cemetery would been in sorry state. When Jay and I have been able to we have mowed the cemetery. Other times we have had to wait for Orlan to be free to cut down the fallen trees.
All the work at the cemetery over last seven and half years has been volunteer labor. It would be nice to have some type of aid in the upkeep of cemetery. None of the male or female volunteers are young as our ages run from the low 50s to the mid 70s.
Dennis J. Prue
Caribou
