Cedar Fort committee to add veteran flags and pursue marking of unrecorded graves

At its Feb. 2 meeting the Cedar Fort Cemetery Committee agreed to expand efforts to identify veterans buried in the cemetery and to place flags on Veterans Day in response to a resident's concern that flags were absent the prior year.

Sexton Harry Draper told the committee he and volunteers are compiling lists and flagged that some headstones do not indicate military service, so the group discussed using a short intake form at the time of burial or checking family records (e.g., obituaries, family‑history databases) to identify veterans. Draper said he will provide photos of headstones to the mapping vendor and work with committee volunteers to reconcile discrepancies.

Committee members also addressed the large number of unmarked or unreadable graves identified during recent mapping and sonar work. They estimated about 101 graves may need temporary or permanent markers and agreed to solicit bids from markers vendors; committee members discussed wholesale temporary markers as a lower‑cost near‑term option and more substantial markers for long‑term use. The chair noted that the committee's grant does not explicitly cover replacement permanent markers, so funding sources will need to be confirmed.

A resident's concern was read into the record: committee members said Nancy Smith "was hurt, deeply hurt that there was not flags in the cemetery on the people who had served in the military." The committee agreed to add flags on Veterans Day going forward and to pursue forms and outreach to confirm veteran status for interments.