Article and Photos By Linda Charlton
The Mascotte Cemetery was not on the agenda at a recent city council meeting, but it was the center of attention for a while anyway. Speaking during the public comments portion of the meeting, resident Pam Terry (also a candidate for city council) addressed what she considers disgraceful conditions at the city’s cemetery. As a result of Terry’s presentation and the ensuing discussion by council, staff has been directed to come back with options for the future care of the facility.
Citing damaged burial sites, brush piles with trash and tire tracks over graves, Terry said “I’m ashamed. Ashamed that although one citizen has made the city aware that this is happening, it still continues. It is absolutely heartbreaking.”
To illustrate her point, she also displayed to the council a shredded funeral home grave marker that she had picked up at the cemetery the day before. The marker had recently run over by a lawnmower. She asked the city to form a Cemetery Committee to develop rules for what can and cannot be placed on a burial site. There are currently no such rules. Conceding that the current proliferation of grave decorations at the cemetery (due to the lack of rules) does present a special challenge to anyone attempting to maintain the cemetery, she also asked that until any potential rules are made and changes put in place, extra care should be taken on site.
Landscape maintenance for the City of Mascotte has been outsourced for several years now. That move was one of the cost-cutting measures of former city manager Gleason.
Mayor Mike Sykes commented that when he first became a part of the city’s government, he went to the city manager Jim Gleason and asked what could be done about the cemetery, only to be told: “we can’t do anything about it.” He also praised acting city manager Dolly Miller for taking the opposite view, that something can be done, and that there are options.
Councilmember Brenda Brasher described the cemetery as “an embarrassment,” adding “it is pitiful, there is no reason for it.”
The consensus of council was 4 – 0 to direct staff to come back with options for the council. Mayor pro tem Steven Sheffield was not present for the meeting.
Lisa Holland Martinez is the citizen Terry referred to, the one that has been making complaints to the city for years about conditions at the cemetery. Martinez is clear that when city employees maintained the grounds, they did a good job. Martinez and her husband are regular visitors to the cemetery, where they have been maintaining the grave of their son, Miguel Angel Martinez, since 2006.
Speaking of the assortment of grave decorations, Martinez says “Everyone … they’re personalizing the graves, according to the family. Sometimes, they put things on the grave, then forget about them.” Pointing to an elaborately decorated and immaculately maintained grave near her son’s, she pointed out that members of that family come out every few months, spruce things up, and basically have a picnic.
The Mascotte Cemetery dates at least to the late 1800s, based on tombstones, predating the 1925 formation of the city by decades. Early records are sketchy, due in part to a fire at city hall in the 1980s. It appears, however, that the cemetery was originally managed by a group called the Mascotte Cemetery Association, and that the city obtained title to the property in the early 1980s.
According to city clerk Michelle Hawkins, the last available burial plot at the cemetery was sold in 2018. One of the issues that Pam Terry did bring up was the possibility of expanding the cemetery.
There are no written rules dictating what can and cannot be placed on a burial plot at the cemetery, so there is considerable variety as to what is visible to the eye. Some of these individualized plots are impeccably maintained and some are not.
(Breaking news – A cleanup day at the cemetery, with community involvement, has been scheduled for October 10, starting at 8 am)
