Fall Maintenance Seminars October 1 & 3 2013

Thank You

To Davids Cemetery: A special thank you to the Brickman Group. Sponsor Sign

Cold Spring Memorial Group helps sponsor maintenance day at Ashland County Memorial Park. Sponsor Sign

Photos From the Seminars

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Ashland County Memorial Park Fall Maintenance Seminar

Ashland County Memorial Park hosted the Annual Maintenance Seminar on October 1 this year, on a perfect sunny day. The morning was filled with donuts and speakers, while the afternoon came with pulled pork and the field day with suppliers.

Our morning session began with Laura Monick speaking from the Ohio Division of Real Estate. Laura spoke about the types of complaints that come through her office on a regular basis. We were all impressed with her common sense approach to handling complaints, and provided us with sound, practical advice on communicating with our families when we have a conflict. Kelly Neer traveled with Laura. Although he did not speak, we all had a chance to meet Kelly and get to know him as well.

Laura Smith with the Red Cross then came and spoke to us about safety issues. We had hands on demonstrations on how and when to do chest compressions when someone stops breathing and how to dislodge an item that might get caught while swallowing.

Ken Cochran from Secrest Arboretum spoke next about tree selection in our cemeteries. He explained how important it can be to select the proper tree for your soil and setting in your specific cemetery. We all tried to absorb as much as we could during his non-stop 30 minute presentation.

Our next speaker was Bart Morr from Paradise Landscape to talk about turf. He focused on the importance of timing when applying weed control, as well as useful tips on how to increase the absorption to those pesky clover that can be hard to eliminate. He fielded questions, including the prevalence of grubs this year.

The final speaker was unexpectedly called to jury duty, so as our event chairperson, I stepped in and gave her presentation on disciplining do’s and don’ts with our workforce. We then talked briefly about the rate of cremation and the number of people that are no longer being buried in a cemetery.

A lunch was served outside with our suppliers, then our final speaker was Jeff Ward from Ashland County Memorial Park. Jeff gave a presentation of the bronze refinishing process he does when refinishing a typical 44” X 13” bronze memorial. Jeff has a small room that is dedicated to the sand blasting and painting steps of the process. He gave a detailed step by step description.

1. Field Call – Inspect bronze to determine if it does need refinished
2. Pull bronze, box, label, date and ship
3. Wash and clean mud and grass from bronze 15 minutes
4. Dry Time 2 hours
5. Sand Blast 1 hour
6. Apply Acid Wash 5 minutes
7. Soap Wash 5 minutes
8. Dry Time 2 hours
9. Paint Bronze 20 minutes
10. Buff Bronze and highlight 30 minutes
11. Apply Final Finish 10 minutes
12. Dry Time 2 hours
13. Box and ship 10 minutes

Total Time 8 ½ Hours

Contest Winners

Back hoe competition and cornhole contest winners were Rob Ullery - Mound Hill Cemetery and Dave Shanteau – Greenwood Cemetery.

David’s Cemetery gave away a Samsung Notebook during a drawing at the conclusion of the seminar. The winner was Frank Quinn – Woodland Cemetery.

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