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EU Cemetery holding general meeting Friday
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The public is invited to the annual general membership meeting of the East Union Cemetery Association to be held on Good Friday at 1 p.m.

It will be held in the breezeway next to the cemetery office. The historic resting place of many of the area’s pioneers is located on the southwest corner of Louise Avenue and Union Road.

The main item on the agenda will be the general condition of the cemetery, said perennial cemetery volunteers Bill Good and Evelyn Prouty. Good is also the current president of the East Union Board of Directors.

Nothing has changed since five years ago when the cemetery association lost its business license and the State of California froze all of its bank accounts and endowment account due to non-payment of license fees and loss of funds under the old board. Without the business license, the cemetery has been unable to sell burial plots and generate revenue. However, funerals have been allowed for individuals and families who have previously purchased and paid for burial spaces. But all burials have to be strictly documented with all papers forwarded to the state by the current board. The board also has to get permission first from Sacramento before funerals arrangements can be started.

There have been 150 burials conducted since the state pulled the cemetery’s license and let go of the two cemetery employees. During that time, a handful of volunteers - mainly Prouty and Good - have taken care of these duties including general clean-up.

As far as the overall cemetery clean-up is concerned, scores of community volunteers including cemetery groups have stepped forward to spruce up the historic burial place. During the spring of 2012, for example, dozens of families and individuals from the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worked the entire weekend doing general clean-up including painting the pump house and the trim of the cemetery office. One church member worked four to five Saturdays after that painting the gazebo and doing other spruce-up chores, Prouty said.