Toccoa City Cemetery Records Project Nearing Completion

A project to update the records for the Toccoa City Cemetery is nearing completion.

Last year, the city commission agreed to have a full GPS inventory of the cemetery done, tie it into existing records, and computerize everything for the city to help simplify those records.

Monday, Toccoa City Clerk Fredda Wheeler updated Toccoa City Commissioners on the project.

Wheeler said the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission has gotten most of the work for the project done.

“I talked with them recently and they are approximately 75 to 80 percent complete with that project,” said Wheeler. “They would like to come in January and give you an update and presentation on the new system. It will afford us new maps and a computerized method of identifying graves and available gravesites.”

Wheeler said she appreciates the city commission for providing the funding to complete the project.

Last year, when commissioners moved forward on the project, it was expected to cost about $66,400.

Wheeler had told the commission last year that the city needed to get a better handle on its records for the city cemetery, which date all the way back to 1895.

According to Wheeler, records over the years have been scattered through various books of record, which has made it hard to go through quickly and sometimes results in incomplete information.

Wheeler has also said she felt the cemetery needed to be re-mapped and the records updated and organized to make operations easier.