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Applauding the Frankfort Cemetery

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September 27, 2009

The Frankfort Cemetery is a beautiful, historic cemetery. This beauty is often times compromised with artificial flowers and just plain tacky ornaments on the graves. I noticed the ads which ban artificial flowers and ornaments well before Sunday's article "Cemetery fights litter' and I want to applaud the new superintendents, Coleman Kincaid and Rhonda Kincaid, as well as the Board Members for putting this rule into action to keep our historic cemetery pristine. I also go to the cemetery often to visit my dad, and I notice every time how much the grounds and upkeep of the cemetery in general are improving tremendously. While some people understand, many people do not understand how much trash the ornaments and fake flowers cause when they are blown from their site. Even if they do not blow from their site, they are unsightly and many times, so many ornaments are placed on one grave, it looks like a tacky souvenir store. To my knowledge, this rule was actually adopted over 50 years ago, but never enforced. Furthermore, several graves have overgrown shrubbery and trees, which then becomes a maintenance nightmare for the cemetery. They are also no longer allowing planting of any shrubs or trees and perennials and annuals over 12" without prior permission from the Board, which is another great idea. Many people do not realize the size these plantings will achieve, and most times, the selections are inappropriate or invasive. When anyone places or plants anything on their loved ones grave, future maintenance should always be considered, because you are not always going to be there to take care of it " the cemetery will. All of these rules benefit the cemetery and its appearance. Thank you Coleman and Rhonda Kincaid, and Board Members for doing your job! Keep up the great work! - Andrea Wilson Mueller

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17.	Posted by bettyefern October 11, 2009
	That sounds like a threat...

16.	Posted by hillbillyman October 7, 2009
	You are most correct. The 4 plots are the ONLY thing you own. And, by the way, whatever you put on that grave, it won't be there for long. Sorry about your luck.

15.	Posted by bettyefern October 6, 2009
	It's really funny, the very next day I posted my last comment, the cemetery staff was in the back of the cemetery weedeating...but you know what, those real flowers we put in Dad's vase's, well, the dead one's were thrown on the ground, so who is going to pick them up? I'm sure the staff won't. Also, I do own part of the cemetery, the 4 plots that we bought with OUR money. No matter how much we agrue about this subject, the Coleman's, the Cemetery Board and the Garden Club have already made their decisions.

14.	Posted by hillbillyman October 1, 2009
	BetThornton, maybe the reason they maintain the front and not the back is that, that's their choice. You don't own the cemetery, so you can't say anything about it. Besides, I don't have a problem with people throwing anything in my yard that I have to pick up and I have a lovely yard. Why should the staff have to get off the mowing tractor each time and remove an item, if all it takes is to set rules to not display anything around the tombstone/grave? Junk sitting around a tombstone/grave makes it very ugly and cluttered. If the staff set the rules that they need and want, they won't have problems following their own rules. Stop complaining because they are going to set the rules they want and they WILL be followed or they will remove your "stuff" and put it in the garbage. I wouldn't blame them. If I owned a cemetery, I wouldn't have all that junk and garbage sitting around while it's all blown around the cemetery in bad weather with silk flowers, etc., all over the place.

13.	Posted by bettyefern October 1, 2009
	Well, since you are talking about mowing, let me ask you a few questions...Why is the front of the cemetery always kept so neat and trimmed and the back of the cemetery is barely cut? Me and my brother pull and trim grass around my Dad's and brother's gravestone every week we go to visit them. Kinda sounds like the staff wants the visitors to be impressed with the entrance and not the ENTIRE cemetery. Plus, when you mow grass at home and something is laying in the yard that you don't want to run over by the mower, don't you get off the mower and pick it up? I thought part of the maintenance crew's duties, is to pick up trash and keep the cemetery neat, clean and sacre. I don't think doing these things are a waste of time. So, if WE the public have to follow the rules, I think the staff need to follow some rules also.

12.	Posted by Misty Sunrise October 1, 2009
	Has anyone thought about the projectiles that could be created when a mower hits one of these items? The debris that flies out from under a mower can kill. Unless some of you want to go to the cemetery and pick up this stuff each and every time it gets mowed and trimmed, follow the rules. You know, rules are for a reason. Usually they are for safety reasons.

11.	Posted by hillbillyman September 30, 2009
	You certainly don't have to place silk flowers or other items on the grave to pay tribute. You can even pray or "talk" to him. I can understand the cemetery's look on this because I wouldn't want to have to get off my tractor to move silk flowers so the lawn tractor wouldn't cut them up when mowing. If I did, I would have to do that for a lot of graves and that's really a waste of time. I don't get paid to move silk flowers; I get paid for maintaining a neat and sacred cemetery.

10.	Posted by bettyefern September 30, 2009
	I'm very upset with the new rules. My Dad is buried in the Frankfort Cemetery and I love and miss him dearly, just as I know other citzens of Frankfort who's love one's are there, feel the same. When my mother bought my Dad's headstone, she also had it made with attached flowers vases. She is not happy at, in fact she feels like she can't pay tribute to my Dad, by bringing him silk flowers to place in the vases any longer. Yes, I agree that there are some, that place flowers on graves and then just forget them for a year or so, but to those of us that go there weekly or monthly, this just isn't fair. The real flowers are nice, but remember, in the winter they won't last, so what is the harm of the silk arrangements? Remember this is one of the few FREEDOMS we have, so please, stop and think about this before a final decision is made.

9.	Posted by hillbillyman September 29, 2009
	I can't much blame the cemetery staff. The cemetery is a calm place and should be maintained a clean and nice place. I think that anything that can be blown away off the grave or is in the path when mowing should not be placed on the grave. You don't want to forget that we also have grave-robbers too. The graves should remain clean and neat in appearance, but if it's going to cause interference in the maintenance of the grave, it should be removed/discarded.

8.	Posted by wapping57 September 29, 2009
	I think a reasonable compromise is in order here. I have had a plot at the cemetery for the last 15 years and put saddles on top of the stone. I try to make them not loud and tacky. However, a lot of people want to put loads of styrofoam threes and eights and other silly Walmart stuff on the ground and then go off and leave them. Don't people realize that you can not mow and weedeat with them in the way and the limited staff they have cannot remove them all and put them back after mowing? I think a reasonable solution is to just allow flowers on the stone itself. What you think is tacky is purely personal opinion. What is really behind all this is a bunch of snooty women of the elite class think that their sensibilities should rule everyone else. If they are going to ban all artificial flowers, then they should also ban live lilies at Easter and live Christmas wreaths. The cemetery staff have a tremendous job every year of removing truckloads of these wreaths and dumping them over the hill at the back of the cemetery. I would like to think civility would win out here, but it won't. Just look at the conduct of the Christians at town hall meetings over health care.

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