Public Works officials are preparing to adopt regulations for the use of public cemeteries. Ahead of formally adopting the new rules, officials are inviting the public to express their views on how those rules may affect their burial practices.
The invitation to fill out a survey expressing those views was announced Sept. 5. “Your feedback is important in helping us shape respectful, clear, and community-centered policies,” read the post appearing on the agency’s social media page.
The survey, he said, is one step towards making those rules a reality. Houses of worship, funeral homes, families, contractors, and the public are all invited to submit comments by or before Sept. 27 to contactdpw@dpw.vi.govdpw.vi.gov/dpw-policies/.
Among the proposed new rules are requirements for licensed contractors to perform services within cemeteries, establish times when internments can occur, and procedures that all parties must observe. “We’re establishing rules and regulations for use of our public cemeteries,” said Public Works Commissioner Derek Gabriel.
Changes to cemetery practices are already taking place; earlier this year, Human Services began ordering cremation for the indigent deceased, Gabriel said.
Most recently, Public Works began building a perimeter wall around Western Cemetery 3 with help from Rumina Construction, LLC. ”Remaining work in the scope includes painting, gate installations, monument signs, stonework, sidewalk installations, and additional lettering along the cemetery wall,” according to a DPW press release.
Gabriel said the wall project was intended to maintain the integrity of public spaces and install architectural features in Section Three consistent with Sections One and Two. Internment at Western Cemetery has now been declared closed with some exceptions.
All burials on St. Thomas now take place at Eastern Cemetery in Smith Bay or in burial grounds on private property. “We are really suffering from a lack of space at all of our cemeteries territorywide,” the commissioner said.
State Historic Preservation Director Sean Krigger confirmed Gabriel’s remarks about the recent wall construction.
“The wall they’re building around cemetery number three, it’s really dictated by the historical details of cemetery number one. The pointed tops (of the wall), those are very common for walls in the districts. It was a common detail, and it had functionality too; it sheds water off the top of the wall, but it also deterred people from sitting on it,” Kriggger said.
Retired educator Glen Kwabena Davis said Western Cemetery began as a place of final rest for those St. Thomas residents who did not belong to churches or families that had their own burial grounds.
In his remarks, Krigger added an ironic note: Western Cemetery was created by the then-Danish government in the 1700s and 1800s to relieve overcrowding taking place in private burial grounds.
“I guess the government tried too much to accommodate too many families … so things started getting out of control,” he said. “And eventually, they switched over to number two.”
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