The Trustees of Old Salem are grateful to Ethan Gregg, a member at Mt. Bethel UMC, for choosing to do his Eagle Scout project at Old Salem. Ethan led a work crew of scouts from Troop 507 to clear the church’s overgrown shoreline over one weekend in August.
Ahead of the weekend, Ethan secured approval from Scouts BSA for the project, recruited his crew, bought food and supplies, and secured discounted topsoil from his employer, Wagner Sod. When the crew arrived bright and early Saturday, August 13, with loppers, handsaw and rakes in hand, Ethan was ready to put them to work.
The first order of business was spreading a load of topsoil among the many low spots in the cemetery to prepare for reseeding. They made quick work of that portion of the project.
The daily team of about 10-12 people pulled weeds, trimmed trees and took out buckthorn along the hillside leading to the lake. It was tedious, back-breaking work, especially since the scouts were only allowed to use hand tools to do their work. An adult leader cut larger trees with a chainsaw. They accumulated heaping piles of brush and branches, which they loaded into the dump truck, a flatbed trailer and pickups for dumping at Gerten’s. After more than 100 hours of work and 3 dump trucks, 7 trailers and 4 pickup loads of brush were removed, we have views of the lake!
In addition to Ethan, his family and the scouts, the Trustees thank everyone who donated to cover the costs of the project, Wagner Sod for the topsoil and use of the dump truck, and Gerten’s for a discount on the disposal of a few loads of brush.
