If you drove down Rt. 106, the Main Street in Clifford, during the last weekend in October, you may have noticed a beehive of activity at the Clifford Valley Cemetery. The women of the Mountain View Garden Club (and one helpful husband), started a restoration project sure to please all residents. When the cemetery's retaining wall was built in the 1800s, there were actually two walls. In front of the main wall, about five feet out towards the road, was a second wall, about two feet high. This became totally covered with gravel and dirt from decades of snow plowing and eventually weeds predominated.
When members of the Tree Grant Committee investigated the dead and dying trees along the main wall, they discovered capstones two to four feet in width and then the shorter wall beneath. An additional step was uncovered at the bottom of the main staircase, leading the group to believe that the capstones were actually a sidewalk in front of the cemetery leading to the staircase and keeping our ancestors out of the muddy roadway.
Through the efforts on nine people on Friday and ten people on Sunday totaling 70 hours of work, the
300 foot length of wall was uncovered, the top leveled, three tree stumps removed and a 100 foot section
was planted with daffodil bulbs. Visitors to the cemetery made many complimentary and encouraging statements.
The Mountain View Garden Club was very pleased when it received a check from George Spedding on behalf of the Clifford Valley Cemetery Association to reimburse it for the expense of the bulbs. The women also planted tulip and daffodil bulbs purchased by George Maxson of the Clifford Farm Market into the stone planter under the store's sign. Bulbs were planted at the base of trees planted around Community Bank and Trust.
The main street in town will surely be lovely come spring!
Clifford Township's tree grant was in the first stage of implementation in early November. After 20 people watched a video on proper planting techniques, volunteers from the Clifford Township Community Alliance, the Mountain View Garden Club, and the Saint Pius Youth Group planted 33 trees.
The state supports such efforts because of the importance of trees in slowing down storm water runoff and preventing erosion. Research indicated that these 33 trees, when mature will intercept about 33,000 galloons of rainfall per year in their crowns, reducing runoff and providing cleaner water. This will also help reduce flooding in the streets and sedimentation in our local streams. Last but not least, these trees will provide beauty for generations.
The many hours of volunteer labor are recorded and used as an "in-kind" match to the state's $8,000 investment in our community. The grant was facilitated by Congressman Don Sherwood to Clifford Township from the North East Pennsylvania Urban and Community Forestry Program.
