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Blog Entry 67 of 80 Grave Concerns: Inside Grand View Memorial Park

News you can use regarding Grand View Memorial Park, Glendale, CA's oldest cemetery, which has been closed for regular business since June 13, 2006, due to legal and financial problems. Lisa Burks also runs the website GrandViewMemorialPark.info.

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Community water drive brewing for Grand View

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Contributed by: Lisa Burks on 8/18/2007

If you haven't already done so, I encourage you to read " A Grass-Roots Effort," an inspirational story by Anthony Kim in today's Glendale News Press.

It's about Lenore Devlin, a Laguna Beach teacher, who wants to launch a community-wide volunteer water drive to help hydrate dangerously arid Grand View Memorial Park where one of her former students is buried.

What I found surprising in the article was the city's response, per its community liason Zizette Ayad. Basically, she stated that the city is aware that people want to help but it's not that simple. In other words, thanks but no thanks.

Frankly, the word "thanks" wasn't even a part of the dismissive response. Is that really the message the city wants to send out to a public willing to do something to try to help avoid a potential disaster during fire season?

That Lenore is a teacher is not surprising, because her water drive idea has roots in a lesson we all can learn from: The importance of becoming involved with and contributing to your community. The concept of mobilizing citizens who want to make a positive impact rather than just sitting back complaining about a problem and pointing fingers.

The Department of Water and Power to the People, so to speak.

What a breath of fresh air.

While a water drive would be (pardon the expression) a drop in the bucket compared to the overall desperate needs of the dried out 25-acre property, that's not really the point Lenore was trying to make when she addressed the Glendale City Council during Oral Communications at its last meeting, Tuesday, Aug. 14.

"If the city needs anything, they should know that there are people who are here to help," Lenore told me via telephone the following morning. "This is a caring, giving community. You just have to ask, and I know people will come through when given the opportunity to do so."

"When the cemetery was open for visitation, we were the ones bringing water in anyway, gallon-by-gallon, and raking and cleaning. Since it's remained closed Grand View doesn't even have that. We don't know when it will be open again other than sometime in September. We'd like to help, and to also be kept informed," Lenore told me.

Hasmik Avetisyan, who buried her 12-year-old son at Grand View more than four years ago, agrees with what Lenore is trying to do and counts herself among a growing group of Glendale residents who would support a symbolic water drive. "Such a call to action is a wonderful idea," Hasmik told me after attending the meeting.

"It is an emotional issue for me not only as a mother, but as a citizen," said Hasmik. "I would care even if my son was not buried there because it affects our entire community. It is a problem for all people."

Hasmik believes what is needed is a organized, systematic approach to the problem that should include the community at large. She and her husband started a Web site in 2006, OpenGMPgates.com, which archives DVDs, letters to California Governor and First Lady, Arnold and Maria Schwartzenegger, and news clippings which chronicle previous efforts to affect change.

"We need to look deeper, past it being the problem of a private company. God only knows the consequences if we don't," she added, citing the potential for fire damage not only to Grand View itself, but neighboring homes and businesses.

Even council member Bob Yousefian had something to say about Grand View, even though it wasn't on the agenda Tuesday night. He made a highly irregular move of addressing his fellow council members from the public podium during Oral Communications, too.

He pointed out that while council gave direction to staff at the end of June to tackle the cemetery tree issue, nothing has seemingly been done.

"I got several calls on Friday. I was very upset because I drove to the cemetery and I looked at it. Short of Vincent Price and cobwebs, that cemetery is ready for Halloween. It is in horrible shape," Yousefian said.

"The question asked was why hasn't any of those trees been watered. Staff gave me every reason under the sun to tell me why they couldn't do it," he continued.

"Do we need an assessment to know why trees are dying? Let me tell you something, ask a 3 year old and he'll tell you. No water, tree dies. It's that simple. I don't need an assessment. That's what really bothers me, sometimes staff puts us in a very awkward position," Yousefian concluded.

His comments were met first by applause from audience members who are regular Grand View visitors, then by a rebuttal from City Manager Jim Starbird after Mayor Ara Najarian inquired if what Yousefian said was accurate.

"No question, the site is getting very, very dry," Starbird responded.

"However, you didn't direct us to go water and maintain the park, you directed us to the extent we could utilize the appropriation to remove trees that were now dead and to trim to make the park safe," he added.

Starbird went on to explain that his staff has been working on getting the dead and dying tree problem resolved in a fiscally-responsible manner as well as ways to implement an above-ground reclaimed watering system in place at Grand View. He said that the overall status report will be presented to City Council at its next meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 21.

See the report, available now on the City of Glendale Web site, here.

"All of this is in the context that we are the only ones who seem to care about this cemetery except for the poor people who have to go there to try and visit the grave sites of their loved ones," noted Starbird.

"The property owners don't care. The attorneys who are representing now hundreds of plaintiffs don't seem to care. And the court, who does seem to care, however, gets caught between the interest in the property owners and the hundreds of plaintiffs now who are lined up with several attorneys," he added.

"Our intent is to get the attorneys and the property owners to sit down and try to address this issue," said Starbird.

While the water drive idea was apparently poo-pooed by the city per Anthony's article, at least the question about the status of work being done at Grand View in preparation for re-instating limited visitations will be answered at the next city council meeting.

Stay tuned for further developments....

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