By Joel van der Veen
DAVIDSON — Passing through town last week, Dick and Myrlene Currie decided to stop by the Davidson cemetery to pay their respects, but they weren’t impressed with what they found.
Visiting the grave of Dick’s sister, the late Eileen Russell, they found the Russell family plot in disarray, with a large, uneven mound of dirt over one recently-dug grave, and various family headstones scattered about.
“The stones look like vandals have been in the plot,” said Myrlene, who came with her husband to the Leader office to voice their concerns on Tuesday.
The Curries, who live in Carman, Man., said much of the cemetery was in poor shape, as though there had been little or no maintenance carried out.
“These are your pioneers that built up the town, and you have no respect for them,” said Myrlene. “It looks like it, anyway.”
She said they have visited in past years and found the situation has only deteriorated since then, while letters to the town and visits to the town office have met with no response or action.
“It hasn’t changed, it’s gotten worse,” said Dick. “The whole cemetery is not well kept.”
A followup visit to the cemetery on Wednesday revealed that some areas were in dire need of attention, particularly the Russell family plot.
While the grass was healthy and trimmed, some newer graves had been left with a large mound of dirt on top — in at least one case, tall enough to block the view of the headstone — while others showed evidence that the ground underneath had sunken in after the caskets had been laid.
A couple of stones were toppled or out of place, while the circular gravel road through the older section of the cemetery suffered from severe ruts, leaving drivers vulnerable to bottoming out.
Town administrator Gary Edom acknowledged the difficulty of keeping the cemetery maintained, especially with the high levels of moisture seen at springtime over the last few years.
“It can be hard to keep up things depending on the weather,” he said, noting that last year was especially damp, forcing the town to organize a volunteer work bee to clean the site up somewhat.
“This year, we hope to have enough staff and enough equipment to keep up with it,” Edom added, also granting that families have a reasonable expectation that the site be maintained properly.
While the town’s public works department looks after the cemetery site itself, caring for the grave markers is the responsibility of the family of the deceased. However, Edom said that in practice, those tasks often fall to the town.
Many of the older graves show the wear and tear that has accumulated over the years, including the formation of moss, and damage to burial vaults placed at ground level.
Mayor Clayton Schneider said he had not heard of any recent complaints about the Davidson cemetery, though he had recently inquired with the public works department as to whether a work bee was necessary this year.
“As far as I know, I haven’t heard anything about it yet,” he said, adding that he would bring the matter up again. “If there is (anything wrong), I’ll definitely get to the bottom of it.”
Other municipalities in the area have employed different methods to keep their cemeteries in good condition.
For instance, administrator Carman Fowler said the village of Kenaston has committees in place for both the public and Catholic cemetery, with caretakers hired over the summer to maintain the sites.
Similarly, Craik administrator Sarah Wells said the town hires a summer caretaker to look after the cemetery, cutting grass and doing other odd jobs, while other town employees look after the roads.