Newark residents continue dispute with cemetery over gravesite decoration policy

NEWARK, Ohio (WCMH) - A group in Newark is battling with Cedar Hill Cemetery management over grave site decorations. The group plans to take legal action against the cemetery and the City of Newark who owns and operates it. "I have family here. I have a brother buried back there. Nephew. Grandmother. I spend a [...]

NEWARK, Ohio (WCMH) - A group in Newark is battling with Cedar Hill Cemetery management over grave site decorations.

The group plans to take legal action against the cemetery and the City of Newark who owns and operates it.

"I have family here. I have a brother buried back there. Nephew. Grandmother. I spend a lot of time here," Karen Hunt-Mitchell said.

She's been a frequent visitor to the cemetery for a long time, but has cut back on her visits in the last year.

"This is a cemetery. This is where you come to grieve, you know, leave us alone. We just want to be left alone. We just want a little peace," Hunt-Mitchell said.

"At first it was every day, just a walk," Hunt-Mitchell said. "And I walk all through here. Sometimes I'll come and walk a couple of times a day. I was told I needed to go walk. So, this is a safe place to come along. Now I come every now and then. Not like I used to. It's not the same.

About one year ago this April is when the current superintendent of the cemetery, Chance Patznick, put up signs warning of removal of decorations that did not align with the cemetery standards. All across the cemetery you could see flowers, bird feeders, mementos, night lights for the headstones and all sorts of keepsakes. Those were all to be removed.

At one point, several frequent visitors of the cemetery said they found a trash can full of people's decorations.

"The wind blew them away," Hunt-Mitchell said. "Didn't you know that they. Yeah. The wind blown away. Now, in the summertime, when they were taken, I found them, and I came and got them. But when we came back out for Christmas, I. I leave my stuff out until after the epiphany. So, I came out and they were gone. And that's when they said it was a windstorm."

Some people removed decorations, others did not. Last month, grave sites in 'violation' of the rules received a letter from the superintendent in a zip lock bag pinned into the ground near the grave. It was a warning that decorations would be removed by staff if they weren't taken down by April 1st. Many complaints went out to cemetery staff and city staffers including Mayor Jeff Hall. 

"My brother passed away in 2015, and when my dad bought these plots, he bought it, obviously, under the impression that you could decorate," Bridget Fouty, who visits her brother and father who lay at rest beside one another in Cedar Hill, said. "And that was his whole life. I mean, we came up here, weed, eat and mow. We take care of it. And this is where he found peace. So, then when my dad passed away, I obviously have carried on that tradition."

Fouty has seen many people mourn their loved ones in Cedar Hill Cemetery. She understands the desire for staff to keep the cemetery clean and attractive for visitors.

"I want things to look nice here. But I think to say that you can't have a Winnie the Pooh bear on a baby's grave or a nightlight at someone's child's grave is just awful," Fouty said.

"A little wooden cross in front of a grave. What? A wooden cross. Now that's got to go. You know, enough's enough. We've all had enough," Hunt-Mitchell said.

There is a section of the cemetery devoted to newborns and babies that died. This area sits on a circle of grass, almost in the middle of everything else. Fouty got emotional when talking about the parents who come to mourn their child. Some of them can't afford a head stone.

"You have babies that are not even marked," Fouty said. "Their mom and dad are going to come up here and see a patch of grass. And where does their child lay? Where did you know? That's where that last part, the last place they saw their baby. And now they'll never know where that is. You know, you have parents fighting for a nightlight. You know, my dad had a nightlight up here for years and that was important to him. You don't want to leave your child out in the dark."

When NBC4 spoke with Patznick about the initial policy enforcement in April 2023, she said the decorations were creating a maintenance issue.

Fouty, who is helping spearhead legal action against the city and the cemetery, said she doesn't understand the "safety" issue as a reason for removing decorations.

"To weed around. [She said] it was, it was dangerous," Fouty said. "But we pulled the incident reports and there were actually none. There's never been an incident report for weed eating or mowing. I don't have an answer. And that's what people always ask. Why I have no idea. I can't imagine that. Why it's senseless."

Fouty and Hunt-Mitchell and a group of other concerned citizens just want to continue to mourn their loved ones the way they have for the last several decades.

"I think I would just a resolution of compromise, you know, trying to just work with people and not just go out and scatter white flags with Ziploc bags on everybody's grave," Fouty said

Hunt-Mitchell said she wants to be able to mourn, walk the grounds, feed the birds and squirrels, and find peace.

"Have some compassion," Hunt-Mitchell said. "If you have nothing, have compassion. I don't see that there's no compassion. I know they say let them dead, bury the dead. But some of us, we feel at peace here. We just want to have peace."

NBC4 reached out to Mayor Jeff Hall and Public Safety Director David Rhodes but did not hear back. Cedar Hill Cemetery Superintendent Chance Patznick responded Thursday evening and declined to comment.