This past summer, the City of Richmond quietly received title to Evergreen and East End Cemeteries, which had been in limbo since the collapse of their previous owner, the Enrichmond Foundation. Months prior to those transfers, the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation has been engaging with the Friends of East End Cemetery and other community experts and descendant groups to move forward with a plan for the sites’ upkeep. Through the Friends, grant funding has been secured to commission a Cultural Landscape Report for the cemeteries, a necessary first step. In the meantime, volunteers with the Friends and city staff have done what they could to push back against aggressive summertime overgrowth. And faculty and students with the Richmond Cemetery Collaboratory have begun a digital mapping project of Evergreen Cemetery, to complement the one previously produced for East End Cemetery.
In the midst of this work, the City of Richmond has advertised for a Community Engagement Specialist who will be directly tasked with supporting such work for the Cemeteries division of Parks and Recreation. This newly created position will bear a great deal of responsibility for keeping relationships constructive and managing many different types of groups and sites. The starting salary is advertised at $59,652. Please help spread the word for this new position for any qualified candidates.