Residents visiting Magnolia Cemetery should see work to address the cemetery’s damaged roads begin by mid-February. The work, which will be done by Falcon Contracting, will entail patching and leveling the roads throughout the cemetery.

 

The cemetery perpetual care fund will be paying $100,000 to fund the project, with an additional $95,000 come from funds raised privately in partnership with the Community Foundation of East Mississippi.  This will accomplish Phase I of the work planned by the Magnolia Beautification and Improvement committee.

 

Phase II will be an asphalt overlay of the roads, at an additional estimated cost of $266,000.

 

“We are very optimistic that Phase I will offer a huge improvement in the condition of the roads in the cemetery,” said Committee Chair Tracey Jones.

 

As work on the cemetery’s roads gets underway, the Magnolia Beautification and Improvement Committee is set to host a spring community work morning on Saturday, April 12 from 9 a.m. to noon.

 

Jones said the committee is asking volunteers to sign up in advance.  Families or community groups can say how many volunteers they have, and they can either choose a section of the cemetery they would like to work in, or the committee can assign a section that is right sized for their group, she said.

 

Volunteers will be asked to pick up trash, including the tiny pieces of flowers that blow off graves, rake in some sections where there are trees and do weed eating and raking in curb and gutters.

 

First established in 1898, Magnolia Cemetery is a perpetual care cemetery in the heart of Meridian and serves as the final resting spot for hundreds of former Merianites. Among those interred there are longtime Mississippi Congressman G.V. Sonny Montgomery and the Key brothers, who pioneered aerial refueling with their 27-day flight above the Queen City.

 

The Magnolia Cemetery Improvement Project, which launched in 2023, is a community-led effort to address ongoing maintenance needs at the 125-year-old cemetery. For more information about the project visit to magnoliameridian.com.

 

For questions and to sign up, reach out to Tracey Jones at tjones@magnoliameridian.com