There have been more than a few issues with the handling of the dead at the Lords Ridge Cemetery lately, and the contention surrounding the management of the graveyard has continued to mount.

City Council’s public relations officer Kenny Morgan told Amandala last week that some of those issues have developed as a result of some discrepancies in the numbering of graves at the Lords Ridge Cemetery.

“The record keeping over the years has not been as adequate as we would have wanted it to be, and that is what creates the problem when we have to identify [graves],” he said.

Morgan said that due to those discrepancies, the City Council has taken on new strategies to handle burials. With only a few exceptions, all burials will be done in the Eternal Garden Cemetery at Mile 13 on the George Price Highway.

“There will not be any more reopening of graves in the Lords Ridge Cemetery,” he said. “We are encouraging persons now to start utilizing the Eternal Garden Cemetery at Mile 13. And with regards to the reopening of any existing graves, it only will be done on special circumstances for immediate family members – parents, children, and spouses. Other than that, we can’t have cousins and distant relatives coming in with information we cannot verify through our records that we have here,” he went on to state.

Morgan said the continued use of the Lords Ridge Cemetery will only create more problems.

An exact date as to when this rule will be put into effect was not given, but Morgan did tell us that a complete survey of the cemetery at Mile 13 is to be carried out to prevent the type of problems and mix-ups that have occurred at Lords Ridge from emerging at Eternal Garden.

“The surveying and the clearing out and the establishment of the boundary of the cemetery, that is now in progress and as soon as that is completed, it shouldn’t be more than a couple of weeks, and then we’ll be able to transfer 100 percent to the Mile 13 facility,” Morgan said.

Last week we reported on an incident involving a family who wrote to us about their loved one’s grave at the Lords Ridge Cemetery which they believe had been violated.

The family informed us that someone had been buried on top of their loved one’s grave, and it was done without their knowledge. The family is requesting of the City Council that the person buried in their loved one’s grave be exhumed as soon as possible. The family is confident that they are not mistaken about the grave, because they have been visiting the grave at least once a year for the past 30 years, they said.

Last week when we spoke to Morgan, we were told that there have been some discrepancies in the numbering of graves at the cemetery and they would be looking into the matter.

Today, Wednesday, we contacted Morgan again for an update on the situation. He told us that the situation has not yet been settled, and added that the family probably has the wrong grave due to the numbering discrepancies of the graves. He also said that the grave in question had no tombstone on it, so identification of the grave would not have been as easy.

“When we have people working in the graveyard as are there on a daily basis and they are unable to say they’re 100 percent certain that that is the grave, it is not possible for anyone to say ‘yes this is the spot,’” Morgan said. He added, “We understand that people want their loved one’s remains to be treated with a certain amount of respect, but there are certain things that are beyond our control.”

Morgan said the Council only took over the graveyard management in January of this year, and they are trying to rectify issues that had already existed prior to their control of the facility. He said the Council’s focus at this time is on ensuring that those issues of the past do not occur in the future.