Things were looking good at the Valley East Cemetery this week, a marked change from just a few days ago, when Diane Martin went there to visit her mother's grave.
A lifelong Valley resident, Martin said the visit was so upsetting, the cemetery looked so shabby, she had to do something about it.
“There was broken limbs and branches from the main tree all over the ground,” she said. “The grass had not yet been cut this year. It was covered in clover. I pulled out weeds for, I don't know, half an hour anyway.”
She said weeds were shooting through cracks in the interlocking stones and “there were no flowerbeds whatsoever ... And that was only the area where my mother was.”
She tried calling city hall, but said she was passed between departments without getting any answers. So late last week she called her councillor, Ward 5 Coun. Ron Dupuis.
“And lo and behold, I went there yesterday morning, and someone had come in early to cut the grass and plant a few flowers,” Martin said. “Now, it doesn't look great, but it looks an awful lot better than it did. It was very disgraceful.”
She said cemeteries should be a place where you can go and remember loved ones in a peaceful and beautiful setting, not an unkempt mess where families feel disrespected. In addition to her mother, who passed away in 2009, Martin's grandparents are buried there, along with aunts, uncles and friends.
“We're Valley people,” she said. “It's a shame when you bury your parents or a child, and you go back and it looks like that.
“If our councillor hadn't done something about it, we were ready to start a petition in the Valley, just to do something to get it cleaned up.”
People have come from out of town to visit the cemetery and she's had to make excuses about why it looked so bad, a concern echoed by another resident, Sandra Giguere, whose mother was buried there in 2012.
“It makes my blood boil every time I talk about it,” Giguere said this week. “My husband and I have been picking up garbage and branches. I was kind of embarrassed and had people coming from out of town.”
She said she almost damaged her vehicle last year after running over a pothole in the road leading to the graves. She's glad things have improved now, but wonders why people have to complain and complain before anything is done.
“I buried my mother last June, and it's been like that since then,” Giguere said. “But I went yesterday and they had finally cut the grass and planted some flowers.”
Dupuis said he sympathizes with the families, who rightfully expect their loved ones to be in a well-maintained cemetery.
“I take it to heart when people call me and express concerns about the condition of cemeteries,” he said. “Cemeteries are something that are very special and (they) can't be an eyesore when people walk in to visit a deceased family member or a friend.”
But he said the city has two dozen cemeteries to maintain over a geographically large area, which presents a significant challenge. And this year in particular has been difficult, because of the late and wet spring.
“We have a huge number of cemeteries in the City of Greater Sudbury (and), unfortunately, we can't get to them all at once.”
They could increase the budget and hire more staff, but they also face pressures to minimize spending and local taxes.
“Unfortunately, it becomes a matter of finances and that's the sorry part,” Dupuis said. “But you act on those (complaints) as quickly as you can.”
Merek Lehto, the city's manager of Cemetery Services, confirmed this week the late spring put them about three weeks behind in planting flowers, and frequent rain made a mess of their grass-cutting schedule.
“It was an odd spring,” Lehto said. “We had a hard time keeping up with all the rain we had this spring ... We had our flowers delivered in the first week of June, and we were still getting frost warnings.”
He said his department's budget of about $1.5 million hasn't been cut, and is funded through a portion of the revenue from plot sales and other burial fees. Four full-time staffers work on outside cemetery maintenance, as well as contractors in different parts of the city.
“So definitely, there have been no budget cuts for maintenance.”
He said he doesn't get many complaints about the upkeep of municipal cemeteries, adding this is the first time he's heard a complaint about the Valley East Cemetery. He encourages anyone who has a concern about a particular cemetery to call him at 311, the main municipal contact number.
“I definitely encourage anyone who has problems or questions or concerns to call and speak with me,” Lehto said. “As you can imagine, we're not in the business of trying to upset families.
“We're doing the best we can. We know it's a sensitive situation, and we try to address every concern right away.”
How Greater Sudbury cemeteries are funded
- Approximately $1 million in annual expenditures
- Approximately $1.1 million in annual revenue
- $900,000 in cemetery sales
- $200,000 interest from Perpetual Care Fund
- Annual surplus used to finance capital projects
- Perpetual Care Fund balance - $4.4 million
