Electric companies benefit Lovell Cemetery project

In a continuing effort to give back to the community they serve, Big Horn Rural Electric Company and its parent company, Basin Electric Power Cooperative, have joined forces to assist a project at the Lovell Cemetery.

Big Horn Rural Electric earlier donated $10,000 to a veterans memorial project at the cemetery, and on Tuesday board member Willie Bridges of Cowley presented a matching $10,000 check on behalf of Basin Electric. On hand to receive the check were Lovell Cemetery District board members Jack Nicholls and Mike Jameson.

Nicholls and Jameson said the $20,000 combined donation will jump start a project to rebuild a memorial and flag pole at the cemetery, add bench seating, run electricity to the site, put in a sound system for programs and install an electronic directory.

The current monument at the cemetery has fallen into disrepair and needs to be dismantled, Nicholls said, noting, “It’s falling apart…We have no record of who put it up and why.”

Jameson and Nicholls said the cemetery district has been gradually putting money aside for the estimated $40,000 project, and with the electric companies’ donations, the work can proceed in earnest. They said the idea to reach out to Basin Electric and Big Horn Rural Electric came, in part, from cemetery board member Todd Herman, who works for Big Horn REC and knows of past efforts to help the community.

Bridges said Big Horn builds a fund through unclaimed capital credit that is used to benefit the community.

Nicholls and Jameson said they’re looking at the nice work done at the Byron and Penrose cemeteries, including the electronic directory at the Byron Cemetery.

By David Peck