Families concerned about unkempt cemetery

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Family members of people buried at the Cleveland Memory Park Cemetery said the grounds have been neglected for months, and they're fed up with the owner not returning their calls.

FOX 5 News spoke with Debbie Davis who has several plots in the cemetery. She said she stops by at least once a week to visit her family and pull weeds around their graves.

"We were raised to be respectful of the living," Davis said. "We were raised to be respectful of the dead. And this is disrespectful."

Davis and several church members have arranged volunteers to bring lawn mowers to the cemetery periodically to clean up what they can. One volunteer, Dennis Young, was at the cemetery for several hours on Tuesday.

Davis said the cemetery was supposed to be a perpetual care facility, meaning the grass would be cut and the property would be maintained for all purchased plots. That, she said, has not been upheld. She said anthills are on several graves and tree limbs were scattered on top of headstones after the snow in the winter.

On Monday night, Davis attended the Cleveland City Hall meeting to bring this to their attention and ask for help. Tuesday morning, the city has inspectors out at the cemetery to document whether or not the cemetery conditions violate any property codes.

FOX 5 also tried to contact the owner of the facility through several means of communication but were never able to reach him.

Davis said she just wants the owner to do what's right, and that is all.

"When we come to see our loved ones, we want to spend time with our loved ones," Davis said. "Not get eaten up by ants or be covered in grass."