Tradition keeps mowers moving

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, June 5, 2002

Once a week, Kenny Bjerke, Chuck Cliene and Ralph George are on lawn mowers maintaining the grounds of Grandview Cemetery. The threesome crew are long time volunteer mowers of this ten-acre final resting grounds.

Bjerke and Cliene started mowing the cemetery in the late eighties and George has been doing it for ten years. Grandview Cemetery Association provides the mowers and these three provide the manpower.

Cliene and George have a vested interest in the cemetery. George’s mother, father, sister, brother-in-law and nephew are buried here. Cliene’s wife, Esteline is buried at Grandview.

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Cliene said, &uot;I enjoy being out here mowing. It’s a nice place to have my wife buried.&uot;

Volunteers do all the maintenance work at Grandview Cemetery. Grandview is unique to this area because the preservation of the cemetery is done entirely by volunteers. These three help with the upkeep of the mowers and

Carl Hanson, another volunteer does quite a bit of the repair work on the mowers.

Cliene said, &uot;We do the regular stuff that needs to be done to keep a mower running, like changing the oil and keeping the blades sharp. Carl just put a new seat on my mower that has spring action for comfort and I don’t get shook up as much. It gets rough on the body mowing the cemetery and sitting on a hard seat.&uot;

Besides the mowers, Grandview has a volunteer worker mow the grass around the building site with a self-propelled mower and another volunteer uses a weed eater where needed.

Cliene said, &uot;We try and mow the cemetery every Monday. We get out here around 7 a.m. and are usually done at 11:30 a.m.&uot;

All three take pride in their work, look out for one another and are by their loved ones.

Chuck Morriem, the manager of Grandview said, &uot;They are a reliable crew and do a top notch job.&uot;