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About 50 or 60 volunteers were in South Green Lake cemetery Tuesday morning tackling prep-work,  for a monument company to re-set about 100 gravestones that were toppled by vandals.  The crime is under investigation and if anybody has any information that would help get to the bottom of this senseless and costly destruction,  please contact Lakes Area Police, 651 257-0622 and leave information. Or, you can always call the county sheriff’s general hotline, 257-4100 and talk with authorities.  The Zion Lutheran Church in Chisago City is responsible for South Green Lake Cemetery and can be reached at 257-2715 if you want to donate to assist the response project expenses.

The property damage and trespassing happened sometime around the Fourth of July.  (South Green Lake is the cemetery on Green Lake Trail,  between the Hwy 8 turnoff at the driving range and before you begin to enter Chisago City.)

At least half the Chisago Lakes football team was  helping out Tuesday morning,  along with helpers from Zion and Trinity Churches and many others who wrote on the sign-in sheet that they just wanted to pitch-in.

 The headstones needed to be scraped clean of old sealant and fixative,  and the pieces gently placed in a grouping so the headstone setters will know what goes where.  

The Blue Earth Monument Company has offered its services, saving an estimated $15,000 in addressing this, and plan to bring special equipment and reposition the stones in coming days.  Blue Earth Monument owners Mark and Lori Maher are from this area.  They had three kids in Chisago Lakes High School between 2000 and 2010, according to the volunteer cleanup coordinator Chet Garness.  

Garness also instructed volunteers (shown in picture) to check for any wobbly headstones and make sure the re-positioning team is made aware so those can be re-attached as well.

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