Dear Editor,

On Tuesday, March 13, 2018, a group of us representing the Central Kentucky African-American Cemetery Association LLC and the Boyle County Convention and Visitors Bureau met with the members of the Danville Cemetery Committee on the issue of the historic Meadow Lane Cemetery, which has been neglected for many years. Restoration efforts, in fits and starts, have occurred since at least 1992, but our goal this time is to see to it that the cemetery continues to be maintained in coming years out of respect to those buried there, and their descendants, as well as to the historic nature of what is arguably Boyle County’s oldest African-American cemetery.

The committee was very gracious to us, listened carefully and with consideration to our concerns and our ideas, and gave us an explanation of some of the issues the city faces, both financially and legally.

In the end, we received the committee’s full support to take Meadow Lane to the next level, meeting with the city commission and Mayor Mike Perros. We have scheduled a work day there for Saturday, April 21, with dozens of Centre College student volunteers planning to clean up this historic piece of Boyle County and West Danville, and will be publicizing this work day more in the near future.

I personally wish to thank Gail Louis and the committee for hearing us and for working positively with us to achieve, finally, the full restoration of Meadow Lane Cemetery to its place of honor in the history of Danville and Boyle County.

In the end, we can’t restore every abandoned cemetery, but this is one which, working with volunteers and the City of Danville, we CAN, and WILL save.

Michael J. Denis

Parksville