Repairs to cemetery almost complete; will reopen soon

The Dundee Township Cemetery West will be open in time for people to lay holiday wreaths on the graves of their loved ones. In fact, it might even be open for the public to pay respects on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.

Much of the damage caused by an August rain and wind storm has been repaired, said Sue Harney, Dundee Township supervisor. And now it's a matter of smoothing out some rough ground.

"It will be open soon. Technically, it can be open now, but we have some small things to repair," she said. "We also have about 25 headstones to repair."

Township board members, who govern over the Route 31 graveyard, may wait to repair them until they receive a check from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. They applied for the funds after the Aug. 23 storm uprooted and broke large trees. Some of the timber fell on the stones. When the wind pulled the trees out of the ground, large holes were left. They posted "Cemetery Closed" signs to keep the public out because the damage was a safety threat, Harney said.

"There was about $33,000 in damage in the cemetery," she said. "We're hopeful that FEMA will cover much of the costs. We're entitled to 75 percent of our out-of-pocket costs."

FEMA employees have already inspected the cemetery. This week, they will return to township offices to go over the bills officials have received from a tree services hired to cut the wood.

Township officials are also optimistic they will receive federal funds to reimburse their coffers they tapped into to repair Skyline Drive and a walking trail in the Jelke Creek open space district. The heavy rain washed away portions of both.

Skyline Drive is in unincorporated Lake Marian, which borders on Carpentersville. It's under the jurisdiction of the township highway department.

"And we want to see if FEMA will reimburse our road department for the time employees spent picking up the tree limbs," the supervisor said. "I don't know when we'll have a determination on how much we will receive."

Fixing the headstones in the cemetery may be tricky. Some of them are decades old and can never be returned to their original condition.

Dundee Township Cemetery West, is the oldest of the two township cemeteries. It was started in the early 1800s and is only 2 acres. The trees in it are also old and large. When they fell, they had nowhere to drop but on the graves of some of Dundee Township's early residents.

The township also owns Dundee Township Cemetery East, along Route 25 in East Dundee. The same storm caused only minor damage in it.