PHOTO BY MARLON WARREN
From left, Metro Councilor Barbara Roberts, and her fellow former governor, Vic Atiyeh, join Metro cemeteries program manager Rachel Fox at a kickoff for the Lone Fir Cemetery Foundation on Wednesday night.
A new organization to support the Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery formally debuted Wednesday, with a celebration featuring tours, dances and paper lanterns.
The Lone Fir Cemetery Foundation formed to tackle large-scale projects at the cemetery. First on the list is the Cultural Heritage Garden, a memorial to Chinese laborers and mental health patients who were buried at Block 14, on the cemetery's southwest corner.
The $2.2 million garden will serve as a gateway to the cemetery. Many of those buried at Block 14 were from the 19th century Oregon State Hospital, administered by Dr. James Hawthorne.
That won't be the last large-scale project the foundation pursues, said Rachel Fox, the cemetery program manager for Metro, which owns Lone Fir.
Two mausoleums at Lone Fir are in need of significant rehabilitation, with a $1 million tab possible for repairs to the MacLeay family mausoleum near the center of the cemetery. Other opportunities for upgrades exist as well, Fox said.
"Some day we might want to have interpretive signs or a proper ornamental fence, or electronic gates so we can have better security and lighting," Fox said.
The foundation differs from the long-established Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery in its mission, Faulkner said.
"We started talking about creating another organization that would work hand-in-glove with them (Friends of Lone Fir)," Faulkner said. "We're focused on helping secure funds for the long term strategic planning and development of the cemetery."
Metro charges a so-called perpetual care fee on new grave sales to pay for long-term maintenance of the cemeteries, but many of the projects at Lone Fir are too big even for the perpetual care fund, Fox said.
"We're confident Metro will do everything it can to take care of Lone Fir, but I think there's a community aspect to that," Faulkner said. "There's an opportunity to ensure it'll be around for a long time and be well cared for."
Frank Schaefer, chair of the Friends of Lone Fir board, said his group will continue to work as a hands-on group helping to connect the community to the cemetery. The Friends will do headstone cleanup, summer and Halloween events and tours of the historic cemetery.
"The Foundation is a fund raiser for the bigger projects," Schaefer said. "We do our thing, they do their thing and there will be times where, together, we're going to be in the middle ground where it's partly both of us.
"The cemetery's going to be stronger, and the city and community are going to be stronger for it," Schaefer said.
Fox, Metro's cemeteries manager, said the establishment of the foundation is a good example of a public-private partnership coming together for a common cause.
"This is bigger than Metro, bigger than Lone Fir," Fox said. "It showcases the care and energy that a public institution has for a property, and the private citizens who are out there coming together and solving a problem together."