Two new requests were heard for American Rescue Plan Act funds from the City of Marietta during Monday night’s meeting of Marietta City Council’s finance committee.

One involves Mound Cemetery and one involves the historic Masonic Building on Front Street.

Mike Ryan of the Washington County Historical Society spoke on the need to continue work in Mound Cemetery to identify graves needing markers, locate the actual sites of persons who are buried there in plots with irregular boundaries, and identify burial plots that remain open and available for new interments.

In efforts so far, he said, 50 old tombstones have been identified. There are at least 425 people buried there without a clear idea of exactly where. A successful geophysical survey would produce a map of all aboveground markers and all below-ground indications of graves.

He presented a cost proposal for doing a geophysical survey and mapping work covering 3.5 acres of the cemetery. It would include the older portions and exclude the mound and newer graves near the southern end of the cemetery.

The project proposed is not funded by the historical society, he said. It only involves Ohio Valley Archaeology Inc., which would do the work. Bill Reynolds, who attended the Monday meeting, said Ohio Valley Archaeology Inc. is a very reputable organization that has done work at Camp Tucker and Blennerhassett Island.

OVAI listed Base Work, including gridding, mapping, creating a map of headstone and footstone markers and reporting, at just under $9,600. Three geophysical survey techniques are offered, and OVAI suggests some conditions may reveal the best results by combining two or three of them. The costs are: ground-penetrating radar survey, $12,387; magnetometer survey, $11,595; and electromagnetic conductivity survey, $15,750. All survey techniques would have the base work cost added, as well.

Finance committee members asked for more feedback on what local experts recommended in terms of the services. That information is needed so that a final funds request can be considered.

Councilman Bill Gossett said he has been in favor of this work since its inception.

“It’s very useful, and good for our overall history,” he said.

Councilman Bill Farnsworth noted that it is also helpful to families of the deceased, and has the very practical effect of identifying exactly what’s available for new burials.

The other new ARPA request Monday night was presented by John Goins, representing the Masonic group responsible for the care and upkeep of the Marietta Masonic Building at 308 Front St. That structure now houses eight Masonic groups and a total of about 700 members within those. The Masons are trying to get restoration work done on the stained glass windows that were a decades-long crowning glory of the 116-year-old building.

The building’s cornerstone was laid in 1907 by the Grand Master of the Ohio Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. Goins said there were thousands attending that event, and following years saw visits by presidents and dignitaries. William Howard Taft, for example, attended a lodge meeting there in 1910. Charles Dawes, Franklin Roosevelt and Richard Nixon were later visitors.

The year the cornerstone was laid, the president of the Marietta Masonic Building Company commissioned William Willet of Willet Stained Glass in Pittsburgh to create the stained glass windows for the building. They were in view until 2005, when the building company was forced to install a covering to protect them from the elements.

At the meeting Monday night, Goins distributed a series of color photos of the building, past and present. The windows are in dire need of restoration, he said. Window removal and restoration by Franklin Art Glass Studios will cost $59,690. Protective window frame inserts from Westfall Construction will be $31,223. With sales tax added, the project will run to $97,731. So far, $10,000 has been donated towards the project from members of Masonic groups.