Lexington ready to tend to newly discovered cemetery

By TIM FLACH - tflach@thestate.com

Lexington Town Hall is preparing to take over care of a small graveyard a mile to its west that was discovered last summer.

Town workers will tend to landscaping and handle other upkeep in what will be a caretaker role, town attorney Brad Cunningham told Town Council on Monday.

The quarter-acre cemetery off Augusta Highway (U.S. 1) contains graves of ancestors of some town residents.

Council members agreed last summer to assume care of the site at the request of family members.

Historic preservationists also backed the step, calling it necessary to protect what were rural graves from steady development.

Tending to the site is a way of “making the best of a bad situation,” Councilman Danny Frazier said.

Town officials plan to assume care of it by midsummer.

Unmarked graves there were found during construction of homes in an area that town leaders say will become part of town as it expands.

Family members will chip in $1,000 yearly to pay for Town Hall’s maintenance of the graves.

Plans call for relatives to be responsible for headstones and a fence around the site, Cunningham said.

Council members are ready to take over upkeep of six other family-run cemeteries with a total of about 50 graves scattered around town. But none are asking for help so far, Cunningham said.

Reach Flach at (803) 771-8483.