Thurston County cemetery trashed every Fourth of July. Will public be banned?
Chicken wings in trees, kicked-over historic headstones and porta-potties on gravesites.
Those are some of the reasons Odd Fellows Memorial Park Manager Bob Brunetti is planning to ask the cemetery board to block the property from public use during future Fourth of July fireworks shows.
Brunetti told The Olympian on July 8 that there was vehicle damage and broken water faucets this year at the historic cemetery located at 3802 Cleveland Ave. SE. Members of the public visit the property on the bluff each Fourth of July for its view of the fireworks set off at the Tumwater Valley Golf Club below.
Brunetti said the damage has been worse in previous years, but it keeps happening. The issue was raised at the Tumwater City Council meeting on July 7.
Council member Angela Jefferson said she heard from residents that some gravesites at the cemetery were disrespected and trampled. She said next year, the city should let its residents know to respect the city’s cemeteries and its past.
There are several cemetery properties on the hill above the valley, and none of them are owned by the city, Parks Director Chuck Denney said during the meeting. They are the Calvary Catholic Cemetery, Masonic Memorial Park, Temple Beth Hatfiloh Historic Cemetery, and Odd Fellows Memorial Park.
The Temple Beth Hatfiloh cemetery dates to 1857, and is the oldest Jewish cemetery in Washington. Odd Fellows was established in 1869, and Masonic Memorial Park was established in 1886.
Denney said during the council meeting that the city provides the cemeteries with porta-potties and trash cans to help prevent any issues with people going to the properties to watch fireworks. He said city staff will be speaking with cemetery staff about what can be done differently in the future. He said they have not heard of any interest in closing the cemetery to the public.
“We have offered that,” he said. “So we’ll continue to work with them and make sure that their facilities aren’t being damaged and that we can manage that event.”
Mayor Leatta Dahlhoff said during the meeting that she thinks the disrespect and abuse of the cemetery has increased. She said she’s lived for years across the street from the cemetery and would walk over there. Some people “just are not respectful,” she said.
She said she doesn’t know what the city should do, but that she realized it’s gotten worse and more people are coming out to watch the fireworks, and they’re being told the cemetery is a good spot. She said the city needs to keep an eye on the issue.
Brunetti told The Olympian that this year, vehicles parked on the grass and people broke two water faucets in the Odd Fellows cemetery. He said visitors were 90% better than the last few years, but he is still contemplating asking the cemetery’s leadership board to completely block the public from the property during future Fourth of July weekends.
He said this year’s damage cost probably $200, not counting labor costs for groundskeepers to clean up trash from weekend festivities. In the past, he said they’ve had people turn over headstones and leave trash everywhere.
“We found a bag of chicken wings hanging in a tree, we found pizza,” Brunetti said. “Somebody left an ice cream bar on a military marker that was bronze, and bronze will react to sugar, and it could cause damage.”
He said the cemetery is full of historic gravesites, including close to 200 people from the California and Oregon trails. He said Nathan Pattison, the namesake of Pattison Lake, is buried on the grounds, as well as a Civil War veteran who was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Some of those historic headstones have been kicked over and damaged during past Fourth of July weekends, Brunetti said. He said he met with city officials last year about the issue, and the cost estimate to replace a large, broken historic headstone was upward of $20,000.
Brunetti said a few years ago, the City of Tumwater had a deal with Masonic Memorial Park to place a porta-potty on its property for the fireworks show. He said wires somehow got crossed, and the porta-potty ended up on top of some gravesites in Odd Fellows.
He said he called the number on the side of the porta-potty, and he was told the company had permission from the city of Tumwater to place it where it was. Brunetti told them it was on top of graves, and that they had 30 minutes to remove it, or it would be pushed out into the street.
The company showed up 20 minutes later and removed it, he said.
Brunetti said people have suggested putting a fence around the cemetery, but that it would not work. He said because it is a shared property, they would likely have to gate the entire area, and it would have to be electronic to allow for different people to access the property at different times. He said a project like that would cost a fortune.
He said it has also been suggested that volunteers go out and police the property during the Fourth of July fireworks show. He said he wouldn’t want to risk putting someone in harm’s way if someone isn’t amenable to following the rules.
He said he does not have a problem with people having access to the property, as long as they treat it with respect.
“I really don’t have a problem if they came out and sat in a cemetery in a respectful way and didn’t cause any damage, weren’t playing around on headstones or anything like that, it would be no problem,” he said.
Lindsay Andersen, general manager of Masonic Memorial Park, told The Olympian on July 8 that there were no disrespected gravesites at their cemetery this year. She said she’s thankful for the city’s support and that it has helped ease “some issues we have had in the past.”
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