Church requests that families keep headstones neat

During the past few weeks, the Cemetery Office at St. Mary Magdalen Church has made a concerted effort to clean and beautify the grounds at St. Paul Cemetery on Jacqulyn Street. During this process the use of weed killer around the grave sites has been discontinued, which will allow more grass to grow in the common areas.

The cemetery office at St. Mary Magdalen Church wants to remind the public of certain rules governing St. Paul Cemetery.

At the time a plot is purchased, a copy of the rules and regulations is provided to the purchaser.

According to Eileen Boudoin of St. Mary Magdalen Church, certain rules and regulations are not being followed.

There are three rules, which, when broken, hamper cleanup around the grave-site. Boudoin wants to remind and inform the public in an effort to correct this situation.

These rules have been printed in the St. Mary Magdalen Church bulletin, and it has been requested that St. Theresa Church do the same in hopes of reminding family members who have loved ones buried in St.

Paul Cemetery of these directives.

•Rule 13 - No gravel, stone, brick, cement or artificial walks will be allowed upon lots, nor will any boxes, food, shells, trinkets, toys and the like be permitted.

• Rule 22 - No markers, trees or flowers shall be allowed between the single grave rows.

• Rule 25 - There shall be no jars, glass or metal receptacles or other containers used on the premises for the holding of floral bouquets. All such forms of decoration shall be in uniform containers approved by the cemetery.

The cemetery reserves the right to remove any flowers, floral designs or herbage of any kind whenever it sees fit to do so.

The reasons these three rules were created were to avoid obstructions on the grounds, hampering clean-up around the graves and to protect the safety of visitors, she said.

There are numerous grave sites that are in violation of these rules. For the last few years, family members have placed wind chimes, bird feeders, solar lights, wind decorations, stuffed animals, statues and plastic flowers on the ground around the headstones.

Based on Rule 13, those things should not be on the ground around the headstone, said Boudoin. She is asking that family members remove them over the next two months.

“Items that are not properly secured have a tendency to be scattered on the cemetery grounds. We are trying to eliminate anything that will fly off the grave,” said

Boudoin. “We don’t want to inadvertently destroy something that is special to the family.”

Another reason for the removal of the decorations is that decorations around the headstones make it difficult to trim the grass.

“We don’t want to remove anything without giving notice to families, which is why we are giving them time to remove decorations themselves,” Boudoin said.

If there are questions, family members can call the cemetery office (893-0244).