OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Workers continued removing the wall at Fredonia’s Pioneer Cemetery Thursday.

Work has started on a new wall for Pioneer Cemetery in Fredonia.

Laborers from N Mathews Enterprises of Westfield started tearing out the old wall next to the sidewalk this week. They got it all out by Thursday afternoon, just ahead of some rain.

The sidewalk in the area is closed to pedestrians and trees between the walkway and East Main Street are fenced off to keep debris away.

Deputy Pomfret Town Supervisor Ann Eckman said N Mathews will also build the new wall. Supervisor Dan Pacos said at a town board meeting in September that the new wall will not reuse any stone from the old one. He said the new wall will be made of “natural stone, to maintain a historic look.”

Eckman stated at the November Pomfret Town Board meeting the project is not a cause of the property tax hike in the proposed 2025 budget.

The board approved the wall project in September for a cost of $195,285. It’s been on Pomfret’s agenda for years. Town officials wanted to do it in 2022 but backed away because, at that time, it would have led to a tax raise.

Pacos said in December 2022 that the town intended to float a bond for the project. He also hoped that the original wall could be reconstructed. However, he said in September that couldn’t happen because the stone would shatter after it is removed.

No one seems to be sure when the ripped-out wall was built; it’s estimated to be around 1900.

Pioneer Cemetery will still have one ancient wall, though it’s in poor shape. It’s on the west side of the property, running back from the retaining wall behind Can Kings. Shattered steps offer an access to the cemetery, a relic of when there was a carriageway to the cemetery next to the current Can Kings garage.