Community Concern Over Cemetery Yields City Action
By JOSEPH GRANT Editor
Community concern over the state of the Sweetwater Cemetery has reached the newsroom and City Hall. City Hall has not only heard the community’s concerns but has acted upon the overgrowth.
The cemetery had not been mowed or trimmed in some time. Weeds and stickers had begun to cover most graves and tombstones. Tree sprouts, which under normal maintenance, could be controlled had turned into shrubs, threatening to become trees with roots which could undermine the curbing and headstones themselves.
The cause of the overgrowth is two-fold, as Sweetwater and Nolan County had already received a year’s worth of accumulation of rain by the half-year mark in June. The second reason was the challenge in hiring personnel to maintain the property.
By Wednesday afternoon, the City had crews out at the cemetery working to remedy the problem.
About 3/4 of the cemetery had been trimmed, with the remaining portion being tended to by a weed eating crew. The City projects the crew will be done with the entire property by Friday.
“The City of Sweetwater understands the issues at the cemetery, and across the community, due to the recent heavy rains. Our goal is to focus our resources on the cemetery and other public areas of town, and keep those presentable. We do ask that the community continue to care for their privately owned property. If we all do our part we’ll get through the rest of this growing season.” City Manager David Vela said.