Fairlawn Cemetery: New board members needed! Help preserve Scio’s history and holy ground

“A major risk of not having enough board members is the board’s dissolution”

Don’t miss the May 13th Stearns Chicken BBQ fundraiser!! Tickets on sale now!

To Members of Our Community:

The purpose of this letter is to bring you up to date on recent activities of the Fairlawn Cemetery Association. The Board of Trustees is comprised of eight volunteers from the community and one sexton. It is our goal to ensure the cemetery is well-cared for and remains beautiful in memory and honor of those buried there.

Our major focus currently is planning for the future of our cemetery. We are looking for board members to help organize, plan, and shape the vision for the future. We also need new board members to dedicate time to activities such as fundraising, maintenance, technical activities, mechanical help, and for new ideas. If you are interested, please call a board member. Phones are provided below.

A major risk of not having enough board members is the board’s dissolution. Once a cemetery board dissolves, the property and funds are handed to the Town. The law requires that Towns only mow at minimum 3 times a year; and without the efforts of the board and volunteer time, would place a tax burden on the people of Scio, and create a legal nightmare in the Cemetery’s transfer of ownership.

Our mapping system has been a large success but still takes enormous time updating and keeping it accurate. If you would like to dedicate some of your time to the history of Scio and the people buried, please let a board member know.

 Additionally, one of our cost-heavy goals in the interim is to cut down many large and dangerous trees. We ask for your support to the Fairlawn Cemetery Association at PO Box 115, Scio, New York 14880, which can be marked off as a charitable tax write off as we maintain 501(c)(13) status.

We will have our annual meeting on May 21^st at the Scio Memorial Library, from 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM. The topics to be discussed are cemetery operations, how to get new board members, fundraising, and potential price increases.

Next month on May 13^th at the Scio Community Center/Town Hall on Vandermark Road we will be having a fundraiser with Stearn’s Chicken dinner with potato, tossed salad, roll, and brownie. Tickets are $14 each. The time from pickup to last call will be from 4:00 PM to 6:30 PM. If you are interested in a ticket, please contact a board member or purchase one online at https://sciofairlawncemetery.org and visit our “Announcements” page. Send an email to cemetery@sciofairlawncemetery.org if you prefer to use email.

Thank you for your support and hope to continue seeing you support the Fairlawn Cemetery.

The Board of Trustees