Willcox City Council and residents have exchange of suggestions for the care of city cemetery | News

WILLCOX, Ariz. (KVOA) — Some Willcox residents are outraged over how the city has been managing its cemetery.

City officials say the removal of items on headstones is a standard practice for many cemeteries in order to clean the area which the Willcox did after receiving a grant to do some cemetery repairs, according to Willcox Mayor Mike Laws. Much of the cemetery has not been maintained.

“The grant on the cemetery we wanted to give you something that paid for a lot of repairs and things. We thought you would love it, it was our mistake. I apologize,” Laws said to residents during a workshop meeting.

The city says its responsibility is to make sure certain sections of the cemetery are clean or it could get sued if someone happens to get hurt there.

Some residents say they are not ok with how the city wants to improve the site.

Willcox City Manager Caleb Blaschke laid out some recommendations on what the city can do with sunset cemetery in the future.

Some of those suggestions include the city not performing burials and instead having a contractor do it.

Another recommendation from the city is to put borders for so called unmaintained areas which are sections that the city is not required take care of, but here’s the thing sometimes they do and sometimes that’s where some headstones are.

Decomposed granite was brought up so the city can remove all the grass there but two residents did not like that idea.

“Taking grass out is not going to stop the gophers in Wilcox Arizona, they’re there.”

“My concern is going out there and taking the grass out. Are you going to remove the headstones and put them back in the right place?”

Blaschke also suggested a funeral home, mortuary, or contractors to level gravesites for up to a year.

The city admits that it has limited staffing to remove anything that may be deemed unsafe at the cemetery but it says it is looking for money to better enhance the cemetery.

Some residents have suggested the community use their own money to help improve the cemetery. 

Ultimately there were no decisions made in regards to the cemetery and it is unknown when council will take up this issue again.