Citizen mourns untrimmed headstones at Violet Hill Cemetery

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Trimming around the headstone at Violet Hill Cemetery is beginning this week in earnest.

Weed whacking around the headstones at Violet Hill Cemetery has been sadly neglected in recent days, and the untidiness was brought to the attention of the Perry City Hall Tuesday by a concerned citizen.

Brett Wuebker of Dallas Center sent an online message Tuesday to Perry Compliance Officer Mark Colton and complained about finding overgrown and untrimmed grave markers at the cemetery on Memorial Day in May and again on the Fourth of July.

“This is the second holiday that we’ve had this year that we’ve been out there that the weeds are taller than the stones,” Wuebker said in his complaint. “That is totally ridiculous specially for a town that has ordinance that they try to enforce for the residence of Perry to uphold and Perry itself cannot even follow these ordinance.”

In his reply, Perry Compliance Officer Mark Colton assured Wuebker his concern for the long grass “won’t be taken lightly. Now that the city’s hiring freeze is over and the part-time employees back starting this week, I look for the cemetery to improve on its grass care.”

Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson said Wednesday that part-time workers for both the cemetery and parks crews were not hired at the usual date of April 1 this year in order to minimize the risk of transmitting the novel coronavirus. Peterson said the seasonal workers started Monday of this week.

Richard Steadman, the full-time director and sexton of Violet Hill Cemetery since 1998, said he and one part-time laborer have been maintaining the cemetery and several other city properties this spring and summer.

“We’re short staffed,” Steadman said Wednesday. “The part-timers just got hired Monday, and now they’re asking for a miracle to happen in one or two days.”

Wuebker said he was not alone in his concern for the appearance of the cemetery.

“This is just not me concerned with this issue,” he said. “I talk to five or six different people and you’ll probably be hearing from them shortly as well once this hits social media.”

His prediction was born out when his post to the Perry Iowa Community Page on Facebook drew many comments in support of his complaint.

Wuebker urged Colton to use his powers at the city’s compliance officer “to make the cemetery a better place to represent Perry and the veterans on their special day.”

In his care for the honor and preservation of Perry’s history, Wuebker’s words were similar in spirit to those uttered last week at Mount Rushmore by U.S. President Donald J. Trump: “For the sake of our honor, for the sake of our children, for the sake of our union, we must protect and preserve our history, our heritage and our great heroes.”

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