(Seguin) — The final resting place for Juan Seguin is getting some new signage.
The Seguin City Council on Tuesday approved the placement of a sign that’s part of a community service project started by a Seguin Area Chamber of Commerce leadership class a few years ago.
Parks Director Jack Jones says the project was started by the 2017 Leadership Seguin Class. It was continued into 2018 but was disrupted by a number of factors. Jones says thankfully, they were able to help restart the work and get the project finished. The Juan Seguin Burial Site is tucked away on a hill along Saunders Street, just north of the Seguin Coliseum. Jones says that leadership class wanted to improve the accessibility and visibility of the historic site.
“They took on a really ambitious project. It was to try to make the Juan Seguin burial site ADA accessible for folks who are physically challenged and can’t get to the actual burial marker and if you have been there, it’s cut into a hill. You’ve got a hill and you’ve got a little plateau where the burial marker is and you’ve got another hill – a very challenging site to get access to so prior to 2017, parking was actually on the east side of South Saunders kind of head-in, right down below a hill. It’s pretty dangerous so I applaud the Class of 2017 for taking this on and trying to make this site ADA accessible,” said Jones.
The 2017 class raised money to complete some of the work at the site, but the signage was never added. Jones says this will make it even easier for people to be able to visit the grave of the man for which the town is named.
“It was decided just to do a parking lot below on the level part of the burial site but do a large informational sign that shows a picture of the burial site and to have the sign by the parking lot so if you can’t get up to see the burial site at least, you can see the sign, you can see what it looks like, you can see it a little from the distance. It’s not that far away so the sign as pictured is 3 foot tall and eight foot long so it’s a big sign. It’s going to be in English and Spanish and we are excited about it. It took so long to get here because the Leadership (class), they graduated in 2018 and then COVID came and all that and so we want to help get this to the finish line,” said Jones.
Jones says former Chamber President Kendy Gravett was a big part of the effort to see this project to fruition. Jones says Gravett worked with the city to get the signage done. Gravett retired from the chamber earlier this year.
Now that the council has approved the signage, it will be installed next to the parking lot there at the burial site.