Two midstate cemeteries, one frustrating year for families
Joyce Gordon, of Hamiltonban Township, looks down at a grave site that remains in disarray Wednesday at Oak Lawn Memorial Gardens. Gordon was with her husband, Hamiltonban Township supervisor Bob Gordon, to see the condition of the cemetery for the first time. ‘It needs a lot of work,’ said Gordon, who does not have any family buried at Oak Lawn. ‘It’s sad. The people that are buried here and their families must be so devastated.’ Shane Dunlap, The Evening Sun
(Harrisburg) — For families with loved ones buried in two different midstate cemeteries, it has been a trying year.
Oak Lawn Memorial Gardens in Adams County has been in turmoil all year – after the former owner faced fraud charges for allegedly mishandling more than $1 million in pre-paid burial money.
The new owner narrowly avoided a tax sale, and is sorting through management of the cemetery.
And it’s no better in Berks County, where families have been sued and banned from entering Rock Baptist Mennonite Cemetery.
Owners Paul and Jean Dovin – who bought the cemetery in 2010 – filed the lawsuit recently.
Bill Miller says he and his wife Barbara can’t visit their son, who was buried at the cemetery in 1980 after dying at age three.
“It’s our hearts, laying there waiting. The suffering my wife has to go through because of this. It was hard enough to bury him. And now it’s hard enough to watch fighting over him,” said Miller, speaking at a state House committee hearing.
Family members of loved ones buried at Rock Baptist Mennonite Cemetery say at one point in 2014, the Dovins started taking pictures of them as they visited gravesites.
Vicki Nunemaker says she’s exasperated and exhausted.
“This is like buying a house next to an airport and complaining about the noise. If you don’t want people on your property, then you just don’t buy a cemetery,” she adds.
She says her father is buried at Rock Baptist Mennonite Cemetery, but the current owners will only let her visit if it is to exhume the body and move it to another cemetery.
A state House committee is sitting on a bill that would bar cemetery owners from prohibiting visitors.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
