Cemetery Spring Cleaning Scheduled Later This Month
Wednesday, March 1st, 2023
Spring is coming, and with it comes spring cleaning. The Public Works Department will be performing some spring cleaning in the West Hill Cemetery later this month to remove prohibited items from gravesites to make way for mowers and landscape maintenance which will be picking up as the grass starts to grow again. Many of the prohibited items are a hazard when landscapers use lawn mowers and weedeaters in the cemetery. Cleanup work in the cemetery is scheduled the week of March 13th through the 17th and families have until then to collect prohibited items from graves or they will be removed.
By city ordinance and cemetery policy there are a number of items that are not allowed to be placed at gravesites. That list includes, "rocks, gravel, stones, blocks, bricks, wire, wire stands, signs, shells, crockery, glass, ceramics, figurines, toys or other materials deemed hazardous to personnel and maintenance equipment." City ordinance prohibits permanent planting of any kind in the cemetery, all planting is handled by the Public Works Department. The full list of policies and procedures for the West Hill Cemetery can be downloaded by clicking here.
“We put in place the policies and procedures to have some uniformity throughout the cemetery to have it look more consistent with what you might see at Chattanooga National Cemetery, a military type cemetery, something that’s very uniform and very respectful and very tasteful for all,” City Administrator Andrew Parker said in 2021. "It's also about safety. We have contracted with a company to do grass mowing and landscaping in the cemetery and the idea is for it to be set up such that they can just mow efficiently and safely through the series of headstones and if they hit areas where there’s gravel or other things in the way, it can cause injury."
The cemetery rules also govern floral arrangements left at gravesites. Artificial arrangements are removed by the city two months after they are placed or when they become disarranged. Potted plants, so long as they are watered and taken care of by the owner of each plot, can remain. Only clay, plastic, or recessable containers are allowed for flowers. Flowers are removed from new burial sites within ten days except for one or two potted plants in good condition or artificial arrangements. Seasonal arrangements such as Christmas, Easter, etc. wreaths and flowers will be removed after 30 days, unless they are causing maintenance problems in which case they would be removed sooner.
Cemetery sexton Terrell Stallings says that the most common violations currently present in the cemetery include some items you might not expect to see.
"Beer bottles, beer cans," Stallings said. "Full bottles of beer are out there on head stones. (More common) we're seeing glass, the little plastic edging that families put around the grave sites, and rocks and gravel."
The cemetery sexton's office can be reached at 706-281-1245.
Below: Examples of gravesites with prohibited items which will be removed during the spring cleanup session including edging borders around gravesites, gravel or mulch covering gravesites, and loose prohibited items left at the gravesites
