Help Save a Cemetery from Insolvency
Here at Dread Central we play close attention to causes around us that are worthy to take up the mantle of. This is one such case because it affects us all into eternity! The Press-Telegram reports Long Beach’s historic Sunnyside Cemetery is on the verge of insolvency, and that spells really bad news for its residents.
According to the site, Sunnyside’s business depends on plot sales and burials, and the 108-year-old graveyard has run out of both. “We’ve sold every stitch of ground,” says Mike Miner, the 73-year-old manager of the cemetery. “We have nothing left to sell, and burials are getting scarce. We’ve had three this year, and two of them were cremations.”
The drought-busting rains of January dumped more bad news on the 13-1/2-acre cemetery at 1905 E. Willow Street.
“January almost killed us,” Miner says. “Everything just started growing like crazy. By the end of the month, it was 4 feet tall everywhere. Not just grass, but weeds that don’t like to be mowed. They kept breaking our mowers.”
Miner and the cemetery’s only other employee, Jose Robles, just barely were able to keep the onslaught at a somewhat manageable level.
“We’ve got a handle on it now,” he says, but “a handle” merely means the weeds and grass have been knocked down to about a 2-foot level. “We’re not even trying to get flush with the ground,” he admitted.
Lack of financial growth, meanwhile, has put Sunnyside on the brink of insolvency.
To help combat the eventual shuttering of the cemetery, which is home to the resting spots of many of Long Beach’s original pioneers, a GoFundMe page has been set up; and after two months it’s still pretty damned far from its goal of raising $100k.
If you can help out, please do so! I mean, what’s cooler than helping to save a cemetery?!?
Categorized:News
