Dear Members and Fellow Culpeper Researchers, While I know I have inadvertently included several people on this list who live too far away to do anything physical, I do hope that those of you who live close enough can attend the Town Council meeting in the Bd. of Supervisors' meeting room in the old post office building on Main Street in Culpeper. The meeting is this coming Tuesday, June 11 -- day after tomorrow -- and will begin at 7:00 p. m. Let me bring you up to date as to what has happened with regard to Fairview Cemetery. Priscilla Harper, whose crusade this has been for 3 years already, Aimee Raines of Raines Record Research and a CGS member, and I have attended a special budget hearing meeting of the Town Council, followed by a regularly scheduled meeting of the Public Works Committee. The article about the Public Works Committee meeting can be found at http://www.starexponent.com/ and click on the line under "Rules for Fairview Cemetery finalized" that says "The whole story." We are trying to work with Town Council to catalog and restore the many graves in Fairview Cemetery here in Culpeper that are in really bad shape and have been for years. However, the Town denies that it has any responsibility for the stones, saying that, according to State Code, they are deemed private property of the person who purchased the lot or the descendants of the person, and they should take care of them. I have had many people tell me that they were told when they purchased their lot in Fairview they were told that perpetual care would include care of the gravestone. If you have a lot there and have your ownership certificate for it that states the care of the stone is included, PLEASE make a couple of copies of it and bring it to the meeting Tuesday. If you cannot attend the meeting and have in your possession anything that states they will care for your stone, please mail me a copy! If any of your ancestors left money in his/her will for care of their lot including the stone, please send me a copy of that also. If we can show that people were led to believe the stones would be cared for, then we can get the Town to fulfill what we believe to be their responsibility. The Town, we learned, has money in a Trust Fund at Virginia Commonwealth Trust Company (formerly 2nd Nat'l. Bank) for the express purpose of the care and upkeep and beautification of the cemetery. The Town Manager, Brannon Godfrey, says it would be irresponsible to spend most of the money on repairs of stones and fences; we feel it has been irresponsible of the Town Council not to have used some money every year since the fund was established to care for stones. If they had done that, such a huge sum of money would not be needed now! Here I need to mention that Mr. Godfrey is the latest in a long line of Town Managers hired by Culpeper, and he has only been here a short time, so he is in no way responsible for the lack of care. Once again, if you can -- please attend the meeting. If you can't, please send me copies of anything you have that you think can help us and write the Town Council members so that they will know that there are others besides the 3 of us who are concerned. Sincerely, Donna