OXNARD : Volunteers to Clean Masonic Cemetery

A deteriorating cemetery in Oxnard will receive a much-needed overhaul this summer when local Masonic lodges and girls’ auxiliary chapters join forces.

Spurred by reports about the neglected Hueneme Masonic Cemetery, Job’s Daughters bethels in Ventura County have volunteered as many as 50 teen-age girls to clear out trash and overgrown vegetation there.

Local Masons will do the heavy work, lifting fallen gravestones in the century-old three-acre site near Pleasant Valley and Etting roads.

“In other words, we’ll get it back to where it should be,” said Steve Cooley, an adviser with the Job’s Daughters Bethel in Thousand Oaks. “We’re going to do as much as we can.”

The cemetery, started in 1898 by some of Oxnard’s founders, has fallen into disrepair after years of disuse and vandalism.

The corporation responsible for its upkeep, the Hueneme Masonic Cemetery Assn., has run out of money for maintenance and instead uses its dwindling funds to pay state taxes.

The groups have tentatively set July 30 for the cleanup effort and hope to draw from five Job’s Daughters groups in the county.

The organization is made up of girls, ages 11 to 21, who have relatives in the Masons.