Committee Meets To Discuss Neglect Of Mount Moriah Cemetery
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - A Pennsylvania house Democratic policy committee was in Philadelphia yesterday to hear testimony on who is responsible and what can be done to rebuild a historic cemetery now closed to visitors due to neglect.
After the session concluded, there were more questions than answers.
Mount Mariah cemetery, established in 1855, is nearly 400 acres and is located in southwest Philadelphia and in Yeadon, Delaware County. A large portion is overgrown with vegetation and littered with debris.
Yeadon borough's director of code enforcement Steve Travers was among those who testified.
"Both the borough and the city have filed numerous citations with the courts for property maintenance violations. The biggest hurdle we had is who to site."
The last board member of the non-profit association that ran the cemetery died in 2004 and his widow denied any affiliation, even though she received pension checks.
So with no owner, who is responsible and what can be done to reopen the cemetery? Questions that many at the public hearing as well as those wo have loved ones buried in the cemetery would like to have answered.
"My grandmother is in there, my grand daughter and I have eight empty plots. You know, it's just not right."
Two Phildlephia mayors and thousands militray veterans are also burried at Mount Moriah.
Reported by John McDevitt, KYW Newsradio
