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Steps to Mound Cemetery's new look

Cut and remove 250 panels (pickets and cross-members) of iron fence.

Sandblast pickets and replace cross-members with new material.

Dip fencing into molten zinc, galvanizing it.

Paint and bake-on finish.

Reset fence posts leaning more than 1-inch off center.

Replace and reset fencing.

For the last month, John Church has been painstakingly removing the more than 2,000 feet of iron fencing that encircles Marietta's historic Mound Cemetery on Fifth, Sixth, Cupper and Cutler streets.

"We started Nov. 1, and I spent the first three days removing 2,250 nuts and bolts from the fencing," Church, 41, owner of Church Commercial Services in Bartlett, said on Monday.

"I expect to be done with removal of the fence panels by the end of this week," he said. "And the entire project is to be completed by June 1."

The $225,900 project includes removal and restoration of 250 panels of fencing consisting of upright pickets and horizontal crossbars. Each panel weighs approximately 250 pounds.

Repair and restoration of the cemetery's two main gates are also part of the project.

"The gates have been pretty well taken care of, so they're not in such bad shape," Church said.

Washington Street resident and engineer Tony Durm, who drew up specifications for the project for the city, said the issue for the main gate will be replacing a foundation beam buried beneath the concrete at the cemetery's western entrance.

"That beam will have to be plumb in order to support the heavy gates, so that will require some special attention," he said.

"Mound Cemetery provides so much of the historical value for this community," Durm said. "So the intent was to preserve as much of the existing structure as possible and still make the project worth the city's investment."

Mound Cemetery is home to the Great Mound (also known as Conus, Mound Cemetery Mound). It was built by the Mound Builders, and is home to the largest number of American Revolutionary War officers buried in one location. Among the officers of the American Revolutionary War buried in Mound Cemetery are General Rufus Putnam, General Benjamin Tupper, Commodore Abraham Whipple, and Colonel William Stacy

The cemetery's fence posts, pickets and gates will be restored, but the fence cross members are too corroded and will be replaced with new material.

After removing the 4-foot sections of fence panels from the cemetery, Church is taking the panels to his shop in Barlett where the pickets and other parts will be separated from the cross members, sandblasted, then sent to Columbus Galvanizing where they will be hot-dip galvanized in molten zinc. Afterward, each part will be covered with a powder coating, followed by a heat glazing process that provides a tight seal over the fencing.

"The coating is not a liquid paint but a powder," Durm explained. "Electrodes are attached to the metal, setting up an electrical charge on the item to be painted. That causes the powder to adhere to the surface, then they apply heat.

"With that process, the fence should last a long time," he said.

Jean Yost with the Washington County Historical Society and the local Sons of the American Revolution group, said completion of the fence project was scheduled for June 1 so that the work would be done in time for a National Sons of the American Revolution events taking place in Marietta from July 1 to 4, 2010.