Letter to the Editor, Re: Riverside Cemetery

Headstones at Riverside Cemetery

To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter because I am concerned with the choice that the City of Lamar has made to neglect Riverside Cemetery. On Mother’s Day the weeds were grown up around all of the headstones and when complaints were made about the condition of the cemetery people were told it was because of “budget cuts”. Then on Memorial Day another surprise awaited people who were paying respects to their family’s graves. The City of Lamar’s answer to the weed problem was to pour ground kill around the headstones. Now there are huge areas of dead grass around rows of headstones. It looks horrible! It was also obvious that no watering had been done in a long time and what grass that is left is more weeds than grass. I was very upset by the neglect and disrespect for everyone’s loved ones that are buried at Riverside.

I also paid a visit to Fairmount Cemetery on Memorial Day and I guess the “budget cuts” haven’t affected it. It was trimmed, mowed, watered, and no ground kill had been applied. It looked very nice.

I want to know why the City of Lamar has decided that it is necessary to take care on one cemetery and not the other. There are people who are paid to do the upkeep on the cemeteries and in my opinion they are only doing half of their job. I am tired of hearing that budget cuts and hiring freezes are responsible for the condition of Riverside Cemetery. If this is the case, the time that is available needs to be split evenly between Riverside and Fairmount. Both resting places of our loved deserves to be maintained.

I want to see a resolution to this problem immediately before they put more ground kill around headstones at Riverside. Community members that have family buried at Riverside, please speak up. It is wrong for them to be so disrespectful of our loved ones. I am sending a copy of this letter to the mayor and all of the city council members. I will not stop until the upkeep at Riverside Cemetery is as important to the City of Lamar as Fairmount Cemetery is.

Sincerely,
Tammy Duffy
310 West Cedar
Lamar, CO

Editor’s Note:  Lamar Mayor Roger Stagner brought the use of herbicide to the public’s attention during the City Council meeting on Tuesday, May 29.  Mayor Stagner apologized to the residents for the results after the chemicals had been sprayed.  Mayor Stagner said only one section of the cemetery had been treated in this manner, and the spray pattern was supposed to have been very narrow around the base of a stone, not as wide as it turned out.   Spraying was used instead of weed trimmers to keep the base of the stones from being marred and to provide a buffer for the headstones when the grass around them was mowed.  The use of herbicide has been discontinued.