Town of Hempstead mulling ways to fix older section of Greenfield Cemetery in disrepair
UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- There has been a troubling find at a Long Island cemetery. Dozens of headstones were toppled and damaged.
The Greenfield Cemetery is run by the Town of Hempstead. As CBS New York found out on Wednesday, fixing the damage may require some historical research.
It's 160 acres of serenity, with manicured grounds and trimmed hedges, but a closer look shows headstones toppled and cracked.
"It is bad and sad, but somebody has to fix it. But I don't know who," one person said.
"It's disheartening they don't have anyone to take care of it, so the people here now should take care of it," Bob Bennett said.
Bennett's family plot is well maintained, but the condition of some others is disrespectful. However, in the historic Greenfield Cemetery, the question is who's responsible for the fix?
The Town of Hempstead owns and runs the residents-only cemetery, which has some graves so old you can barely make out names and dates.
"The headstones are the responsibility of the family because this goes back to the Civil War, this cemetery, so to locate families is very difficult, which we do try to do," Town of Hempstead spokesperson Greg Blower said.
The spokesperson said the town's historian is also researching which of the 1800s-era markers can be restored and what all of that will cost if families cannot be found.
"Supervisor Clavin and the town board want this to be a place of respect for those interred, so we are looking at the town historian to hire companies to come and renovate," Blower said.
There has been no determination if the damage is the work of vandals or just Father Time and Mother Nature. Cemetery workers have been mapping the damage.
"Out of respect, the town should take care of it. You're not going to find family," Bennett said.
These days, there are rules about headstones, materials and their foundations, so you don't see this sort of destruction in the more modern section of the cemetery.
There are 100,000 people interred at the Greenfield Cemetery, which is a municipal cemetery. The state Division of Cemeteries does not have jurisdiction over those cemeteries.