INSTITUTE, WV (WOWK) – The Donel C. Kinnard Memorial State Veterans Cemetery is beginning work this week to fix an eroding creek bank behind the cemetery’s Section 2.

This is due to concerns that a strong rain could cause the creek to rise, flooding the gravesite and damaging the headstones. Due to the construction, all 107 headstones had to be temporarily removed.

13 News spoke with the cemetery’s building maintenance supervisor, Michelle Roth, who said they’ve noticed the creek bank becoming more unstable as the years have gone by.

“We’ve been keeping an eye on it, and we didn’t want it to erode further up into the burial sections. We’re taking preventative measures to raise the section up approximately six to seven feet, and have a rock wall put in the back to help prevent any water overflowing into the grave site,” said Roth.

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Section 2 also serves as the resting place for some of West Virginia’s most decorated veterans.

“We have Woody Williams buried out here as well, so we’re very honored to have him out here with us. And there are three Medal of Honor recipients in this section. So we want to preserve it and keep it as beautiful as possible,” said Roth.

Roth went on to say that there is a plan in place to ensure all headstones are placed back in their proper spot following the construction.

“We have GPS markers that we will put into the ground. We marked those – latitude and longitude – before we pulled them, so we know exactly where they’re supposed to go. We also have maps that we go by from when the cemetery was developed. Those provide us with the correct coordinates. So we’ll use those to replace the GPS markers and from there we’ll use the markers to grid out our headstones,” said Roth.

Construction will be conducted through a partnership with the West Virginia Department of Highways and the West Virginia Department of Veterans Assistance. Leftover soil from the Jefferson Road construction project will be used to help supplement the creek bank.

Construction is expected to begin this week with plans to be completed in two months.

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