Dieterich Waiting to Start on Cemetery Renovation Work

The Village of Dieterich is ready to begin work to rehabilitate a portion of the village cemetery, once drier weather reaches the area.

Some of the monuments in the older portion of the cemetery are unstable. The plan is to set the monuments aside, pour concrete footings and then reset the monuments.

Dieterich Village Clerk Brittny Gipson said records are incomplete or unavailable as to the cemetery plots and what descendents are around to maintain the monuments, so the village has decided to undertake the project. Gipson said it will be a "couple of years" project.

Effingham Monument will remove and then reset the monuments, while Keith Lewis Construction will pour the concrete footings.

The Village is also waiting on IDOT approval of a project to reconstruct Virginia Street from the Post Office, west to the veterans memorial at Liberty Memorial Park. The project, which will also improve access to and from Dieterich schools, is scheduled for the 2015 construction season.

The Board agreed to start making available lots in Phase 3 of the North Pointe East Addition. Gipson said interested parties can reserve lots until infrastructure is in place and then the lots can be sold for development.

Village officials are also finalizing work to connect all sidewalks throughout the village, including replacement of the pedestrian bridges throughout town. An $800,000 grant was received to help finance the project. There was also discussion about how to improve Steppe Drive in the area by First National Bank of Dieterich and the bank's drive-thru facility, and the Board agreed to put in a dropbox and culvert to improve the intersection of Section and Vine Streets.

Dieterich board members hired Deb Bohannon as an independent contractor to handle advertising for the village; discussed help for the Bishop Mutual Insurance Company since it lost its sewage service to a business opened next door since the original sewer was incorrectly installed; transferred the property on which the newest Habitat for Humanity house was built to the new homeowner; and approved a permit for an accessory building at 307 North Pointe Drive.