If the National Register of Historic Places adds Liverpool’s Village Cemetery to its rolls, the 169-year-old graveyard could become eligible for state renovation funds. At its Jan. 26 meeting the Liverpool Village Board of Trustees approved a request from the Cemetery Committee formed last year to pay $3,000 to hire a professional consultant to submit an application requesting national historic registration for the cemetery. Formally created July 21, 2014, the Cemetery Committee, chaired by Dr. Michael Romano, also includes Jim Farrell, Bob Gaetano, Roberta Kompare, Peter Osborne and Kelley Romano. Ex officio members include Liverpool Mayor Gary White, Superintendent of Public Works Bill Asmus, village historian Dorianne Elitharp Gutierrez and Ken Palmer, commander of American Legion Post 188. The State Historical Preservation League may reimburse some $2,500 of the consultant’s $3,000 fee, the committee noted in its proposal. The move to identify the cemetery as an historic landmark is the first part of an anticipated Village Cemetery Restoration Project. The village has set aside $90,000 for cemetery rehabilitation, but if the historic registration succeeds, the committee expects New York state will help fund the project. “If unsuccessful at obtaining inclusion [in the Historical Registry] then the entire project future must be brought back to the board for further discussion as state funding possibilities are largely reduced,” the committee’s proposal reads. More than 3,500 people have been buried in the cemetery since it was established in the mid-1840s. Approximately 200 plots are vacant, and another dozen or so are available for cremains only. Originally part of the state’s Salt Springs Reservation, it was eventually deeded from the state to the village with the understanding that the land would always remain a cemetery. The cemetery is bounded on the east and west by Tulip and Alder streets and by Fifth and Sixth streets on the south and north. Two roads run crosswise through the cemetery. Since 2013, orange mesh fences have blocked motorists from driving on the two-ramp cemetery entrance on Tulip Street where the stone retaining wall is crumbling. The ramps apparently were erected in the early 20th century. In late 1949, ornamental chain fences replaced oft-vandalized wooden fences on the street side of each ramp. Village engineer Greg Sgromo estimated the ramp repairs could cost about $10,000, and he expressed hope that Onondaga County would help fund that project.