The Historic Preservation Commission is doing everything it can to preserve the Pine Hill Cemetery -- just short of embalming.
The Historic Preservation Commission is looking around other cities for different ways to maintain and preserve the cemetery.
"Basically the cemetery is one of the oldest historic resources in the city of Auburn," said Matt Mosley, senior planner for the Auburn planning department and staff representative for the Historic Preservations Commission. "It's still an active cemetery as well. There is just a lot of discussion about how a cemetery functions and is maintained and how to preserve the history while operating it as well."
At its last meeting, the Commission discussed the want for new techniques to upkeep the cemetery and asked Mosley about the cemetery and how maintenance was handled at other cemeteries.
"The Historic Preservation Commission, which is basically the city's preservation arm, asked about how maintenance was handled in other cemeteries," Mosley said. "They asked me informational issues about how other cities do it, whether any preservation departments do maintenance on cemeteries and things like that."
Currently, Pine Hill Cemetery is under the jurisdiction of the Parks and Recreation Department; therefore all changes to its upkeep must come from them.
Mosley said he thinks the different groups that work in the cemetery prompted discussion on the way it is maintained.
"A lot of private groups have been working with the cemetery to restore some of the older tombstones and some different areas around the cemetery," Mosley said. "The city has worked with them quite a bit as well."
After looking at the way other cities and towns maintain and take care of the cemeteries in their boundaries, Mosley said he passed his findings along to the Auburn Parks and Recreation Department.
"I went out and asked other cities and organizations how they do it and replied back to them (HPC)," Mosley said. "We didn't actually take any steps or asked to change the maintenance of it. It's done by our Parks and Rec Department, and they do a good job with it."
Pine Hill Cemetery was established in 1837 on land donated by John J. Harper, the founder of Auburn.
Becky Richardson, parks and recreation director, said the department works to be respectful to all cemeteries and keep them properly maintained.
"The cemetery advisory board has worked with the Auburn Cemetery trust, which is a nonprofit group that was formed to raise funds to assist with projects at city of Auburn cemeteries," Richardson said.
The two groups have worked together on a few projects designed to maintain Pine Hill cemetery.
These projects include putting new fencing around the cemetery, putting a stone retaining wall around the front of the cemetery where there was erosion and new lanterns. Richardson said maintaining the cemetery is important to the Parks and Recreation Department.
"It is important because it is a part of our history and we want people to be able to continue to learn from it," Richardson said. "I think it's important to be respectful to all cemeteries, and that's what we try to do."
Richardson said she has not seen the findings from Mosley, but that the maintenance of the cemetery will remain the same.
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