Some good news for people who want to visit Grand View Memorial Park. The Glendale cemetery will be open to the public on three Sundays: June 29, July 13, and July 27.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony Mohr signed an order on Tuesday, June 24, granting the three public visitations from noon to 4 p.m. The order allows visitors to clean grave markers, hand trim dried grass, to water the grass by hand, and to leave commemorative items at the gravesites.

The 124-year-old cemetery has been mired in management problems and legal wrangling since the fall of 2005, when a state investigator discovered the remains of four thousand bodies that had been improperly handled. Some of the cremated human remains dated back to the 1930's.

After being closed for a number of months, Grand View was opened for two short public visitations in March and May of 2008. Plantiffs' attorney Paul Ayers is among those pushing for Grand View to be opened on a regular basis. Ayers sends out mailings to relatives who have loved-ones at Grand View and to other interested parties. I am on Ayers' e-mail list.

Ayers' e-mail on the new openings for Grand View included a call for volunteers to help staff the visitations as well as a reminder that no smoking, fires or incense burning are allowed on the cemetery grounds.

Judge Mohr has scheduled a status conference on July 29 to review the situation at Grand View and to consider additional visitation dates.