TRINITY — A passion project for a Trinity County native was handed to the Trinity City Council after an impassioned plea to save the Millican Cemetery.
At the Thursday council meeting, Larry Turner of Spring asked the city to annex the property and begin maintaining the cemetery, which is overgrown.
“This is a grave matter — an oversight — and this council should adopt this cemetery,” Turner said. “You have a sacred undertaking facing you. The council needs to seriously consider adopting this cemetery.”
Turner provided the history of the cemetery, which was first used in 1876, and members of the Turner family are buried there as well. He also provided history of his work on rehabilitating the cemetery, which started two years ago.
Turner has been working with Susanne Waller, chair of the Trinity County Historical Commission, to have the cemetery designated as historical, and had previously approached the County Commissioners Court about cemetery maintenance. The court did clean the cemetery once but would not assume responsibility for it as the cemetery is located on private land.
Turner said he then turned to former city manager Tim King but was told by council members that they were never made aware of that. He also pointed out the cemetery was part of the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, and by law should be maintaining it. Also, the current property owners have granted permission for that to happen.
Ultimately, Turner said he wants to retire from his mission and have the city take over by appointing someone to spearhead the effort.
Council member Bubba Smith said he would like to know all the details before anything, and Mayor Billy Goodin said the council was not the place to discuss all aspects of the issue, because there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle.
After the discussion, Trinity resident Allen Kinsell volunteered to ramrod the project for Mr. Turner.
In other business, council members:
