Complaints are coming in about the grass height at Savannah Cemetery. (Photo by Annebelle Chipps)

By Annabelle Chipps, New Castle News

A former Lawrence County resident said she is frustrated by the uncut grass and garbage thrown over a hillside at Savannah Cemetery in Shenango Township.

Maggie Miller, of Mercer County, attended Tuesday’s Lawrence County commissioners meeting to seek advice about who owns the resting place of many veterans, how to get it cleaned up and keep it maintained.

She claimed its condition is despite a perpetual care fee she and others have been paying.

Miller’s parents are buried at Savannah Cemetery.

“I was out there last week. The grass was almost up to my hips, it was up to my thighs,” she said. “We looked across the field, we could see one inch of the veterans’ flags, that’s how high the grass was. There’s garbage over a hill in the back of the cemetery that goes down to a creek that really needs cleaned up.”

Miller said she picked up three 30-gallon bags of garbage last year that had been “just thrown” on the property and there was nowhere to dispose of the waste.

This year, Miller posted about the neglect on social media and it was temporarily resolved by volunteers.

“The volunteers did mow it. Someone told me this happens every year. Someone pitches a fit, it gets mowed and then it’s forgotten about,” she said. “Well, I don’t want to forget about it. Our veterans deserve better than that.”

Miller said she considered holding a fundraiser so someone could be paid to take care of the property, but “I was told I can’t raise funds if there is existing money. But I don’t know where the perpetual care money went,” she said.

She is seeking information regarding the owner of the cemetery, as it does not belong to the nearby church. Commissioner Dan Vogler said public concern about the conditions of cemeteries in Lawrence County is nothing new.

“We don’t have the legal authority to go in and address grass cutting or the resetting of stones or the picking up of limbs or debris,” he said. “The county is not given that authority by the commonwealth.”

Vogler suggested Miller talk to the township supervisors.

County Administrator Joe Venasco directed her to Lawrence County’s property listing on its website.

“Our families deserve much better, but our veterans deserve more than they’re getting up there,” Miller said, “and that just really bothers me.”

Annabelle Chipps is a recent graduate of Slippery Rock University and one of 10 Pittsburgh Media Partnership summer interns.