Is it happening to you? Are you so taken in by the momentum of the "Arsenal Street Cemetery Beautification Project" that you simply cannot resist a glance-over as you travel along Watertown's busiest street? If the answer is yes ... join the club!

The massive undertaking (no pun intended) is in the midst of its second season already. Spearheaded by local gal Kathy Plante-Hunt, she and those engaged in his impressive volunteer effort have done an absolutely tremendous job at restoring and preserving one of our communities most treasured landmarks. Kathy, I have to believe there's an award (and more) out there with your name on it. Your dedication and unwavering perseverance provides daily inspiration to us all. News10Now shot a video of the project's Adopt-A-Plot initiative back in May. Take look, it's worth it.

Now ...back to the article's title. Truth be told, it's just plain 'spin' to get you here. There...I said it...and feel better. While we all must accept personal responsibility for our driving habits, I am hostage to a 'spell' which visits me repeatedly along that stretch of Arsenal Street. As much as I utter the words (often aloud)...."Don't look...don't look....keep your eyes on the road" ....it's beyond my control.

Whoever said it was right, beauty wins every time.

http://www.northcountrynews.com/

A violin prodigy who toured the country as a child, Goodall was known as the “mad fiddler.”

He died in his early 30s in the Jefferson County poorhouse in Watertown in 1881.

Now a city woman is out to restore not only Goodall’s reputation, but his final resting place.

Kathy Plante-Hunt has worked to restore Watertown’s Arsenal Street Cemetery.

Along the way, she has found Goodall’s neglected and long forgotten headstone.

“I was so elated. It was like finding the blue diamond in the rough. I was so happy,” she said.

The marker was set upright and cleaned.

It’s unclear how Goodall came to reside Watertown.

His father was also a violinist; he happened to be in the orchestra at Ford’s Theater in Washington on the night that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.

http://www.wwnytv.net/index.php/2008/09/19/north-countrys-finest-discovering-the-past/

The sunny and warm day Saturday made for perfect conditions for the 2nd annual Adopt-A-Plot program at the Arsenal Street Cemetery in Watertown.

Volunteers came out to help spruce up the landmark.

The idea behind the program is that volunteers pick a gravestone or portion of the cemetery to fix up.

They clean the headstones and plant flowers, then hopefully return throughout the year to keep the area looking great.

 http://www.wwnytv.net/index.php/2008/06/07/2nd-annual-adopt-a-plot-program-helps-fix-up-cemetery/

WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- It's year two of a six year project to clean up the cemetery on Watertown's busiest street. More than 30 volunteers gathered at the Arsenal Street Cemetery for the preservation and beautification project.

Groups from the cub scouts, soldiers and families helped seal benches and bird feeders and clear back lilac bushes that have seemingly engulfed headstones.

The group is planning an adopt-a-plot program that will allow people and businesses to create gardens and have specific headstones to clean up each year.

"We need to embrace our past so we have something left to give our future. I just want people to come out and be a part of history in the making,” said Kathy Plante-Hunt, Project Coordinator.
    
The adopt-a-plot program will be held in June at the cemetery.

http://news10now.com/Default.aspx?ArID=115851

WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- The Arsenal Street cemetery is the oldest graveyard in the city of Watertown. It dates back to the early 1800s. But over the years, the city's past has been fading. Graves have been vandalized and much of the inscriptions on the stones are fading away.

That's why Kathy Plante-Hunt decided something needed to be done to restore the graves and their history. So Plante-Hunt took it upon herself and kicked off an adopt-a-plot campaign and now a volunteer blitz.

"What we're trying to do is get people in the community to come out and help plant all the flowers, bushes, the trees and just get down and dirty with the digger and just help," said Plante-Hunt.

Volunteers from JRTC are helping by simply watering flowers that were planted to spruce up the graves. Also on hand to help was two historical interpreters from the Sackets Harbor Battlefield Site.

"Well it's extremely important to get volunteering effort to go because its part of preserving the heritage of the local community and if you let it go and get worse neglected than this; it's just going to get the problems going to be excalabrated," said Daniel Trombley, Historical Interpreter.

Organizers say the cemetery needs to get cleaned up now rather than later, because if not, in the future a business or developer could come in wanting to purchase this land because there's not much land left to develop on Arsenal Street.

"It has happened in Syracuse and we need to take care of it cause this is ours, this belongs to this community and you know can't put a price on that especially with the history that's involved here," said Plante-Hunt, Organizer.

Plante-Hunt says this is just the beginning. She says if all goes well with the cleanup, she's hoping to develop some of the green space into a park for the community.

The cemetery sits on property owned by the city of Watertown. Volunteers are needed to help clean up from Wednesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.

For more information on the clean up project you can call Kathy at (315) 788-3306

http://news10now.com/Default.aspx?ArID=32150

WATERTOWN, N.Y. -- It was a dreary day outside in the North Country, but that didn't stop this group of volunteers from trying to make a difference.

Saturday was "Make a Difference Day" all over the country and in Watertown, a group of people have been trying to clean up and beautify the Arsenal Street Cemetery.

Saturday's clean up saw several nurses from Samaritan Medical Center bearing the elements to pitch in.
   
"I’m very impressed. It's very hopeful. We've got a lot of high spirited and dedicated volunteers that really want to make a difference in their community,” said Kathy Plante-Hunt, Project Organizer.

Saturday's volunteer efforts will be entered in a contest where 10 winners will rewarded with $10,000 to use for their project.

http://news10now.com/content/top_stories/126777/-make-a-difference-day-/Default.aspx

By KELLY WARTH TIMES STAFF WRITER

July 28, 2008
HENDERSON -- The gravestone of Roswell Davis, a War of 1812 veteran, was found lying face-down in a ditch on the edge of Bishop Cemetery over the weekend.

How it got there is a mystery, but a group of 20 historical preservation enthusiasts made sure it would stand tall again, along with several other marble monuments and tablets that have battled every winter since the mid 1800s.

The group gathered at the cemetery for a preservation workshop with Jonathan W. Appell, a gravestone conservator and owner of New England Cemetery Services, West Hartford, Conn.

"The cool thing about it is these people are going to go back to their communities and work," he said.

Town of Henderson Historian Eric C. Anderson said Bishop Cemetery, like so many others, has been neglected for years. He said he hopes the workshop will give people the tools to fix their local historical cemeteries.

"Hopefully we can put old cemeteries back together somewhat," he said.

Mr. Appell, who has preserved thousands of gravestones, gave a hands-on lesson in cleaning, resetting and piecing the markers together.

"I learned the right way to do things and what not to do," said Mark T. Eveleigh, Adams, a trustee of the Sulphur Springs Cemetery Association, as he scrubbed the dirt off Mr. Davis' gravestone with water, anti-microbial soap and a soft scrub brush.

Mr. Appell said the major things not to do include using bleach or metal brushes to clean the stones and using a hard cement as mortar for monument repair.

The repairs made over the weekend should last indefinitely, barring any extreme weather events.

Attendees also learned how to prioritize which gravestones should be fixed first.

"It was helpful to learn simple things like stones leaning forward or backward are more endangered than stones leaning to the side," said Iris K. Burnell, Henderson.

Jennie B. Howland, Carthage, attended to gain experience for her future career in historic preservation. She thinks the two-day tutorial will boost her resume.

The workshop boosted the confidence of Kathy T. Plante-Hunt, who has made it her mission to preserve and beautify the Arsenal Street Cemetery.

"I'm anxious to get started," she said. "I think it's very important to save what we have so we're able to pass it down to our future generations so that they know where we came from."

Ms. Howland said keeping gravestones intact and legible, and finding out who the people were, are also necessary in order to honor past generations.

"Even though its been five or six generations, it's important to respect people's lives," she said.

Bonnie Shafer, who is on the town of Watertown Historical Society board, said the element of respect comes from knowing who the people were and what their lives were like, not just making cemeteries look nice.

"I think beautification is fine in cemeteries, but knowing what's there is just as important," she said.

The group managed to practice a variety of preservation techniques on at least five markers, despite the rain on Saturday.

"This was a great beginning," said Barbara Daniels, a volunteer at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Colton. "This cemetery will never be the same."

Republished from the Watertown Daily Times. Copyright, 2008, Johnson Newspaper Corporation