LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Although there are no plans to allow new burials at Louisville Cemetery, the grounds still need to be maintained.
The community stepped up Saturday to clear weeds from the grounds.
"To come up to pay your respects to a loved one and find the environment so disheartening is an overwhelming experience," Alesia Floyd said.
Floyd spent her Saturday morning cleaning her son's gravesite to make it look like a place where he can rest in peace.
"We buried him here thinking that we would have a beautiful resting place for my son," Floyd said.
It's not just Floyd's son's grave. A Louisville Metro Codes and Regulations spokesperson said the agency has handed out 14 fines to the owners since receiving complaints and inspecting the cemetery. That includes one fine placed on the door of the office Tuesday.
"It was heartbreaking to see it," Tammy Fletcher said. "It was just in bad shape. Some of the weeds are taller than I was."
The cemetery stretches 31 acres. Fletcher said the cemetery has been left untouched, poorly managed and in disarray, leaving loved ones pushing lawn mowers and cleaning a mess that feels endless.
"I don't think it's fair for me or for anybody to have to come out here and do this to cut grass, to weed eat," Fletcher said. "I don't think it's fair at all but having the hearts that we do."
Fletcher and many others volunteering at the Louisville Cemetery Improvement Association Cleanup Day are doing it anyway.
Earlier this week, cemetery owner Clark Cox told WDRB he planned to close the cemetery to new burials. Cox said this would allow money from a trust fund to be used to maintain the grounds well into the future, but personal reasons have led to a delay.
"I would like Mr. Clark to step up to the plate," Fletcher said. "Let the families know what he is going to be accountable for."
In the middle of the weeds and grief, Louisville residents leaned on each other.
"I like to think that someone else is going to come along maybe 100 years from now and take care of my cemetery plot," Mark Fleshman said.
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