Lincoln Cemetery Volunteers Formally Resign at City Council Meeting

Members of the Lincoln Cemetery Rehabilitation Authority are still upset with city officials for letting a burial take place at the cemetery. The cemetery has a cease and desist order and is registered as a neglected cemetary, meaning burials are prohibited. 

 

“It was hurtful because we are the ones out there every other Saturday taking time away from our families to handle this cemetery that nobody else wants to deal with,” says Denise Hordin, who served as the cemetery’s volunteer researcher and photograher. 

 

At council, members of the rehabilitation authority formally resigned from their positions. Phyllis Armstrong served as the secretary but says she will no longer serve because she says the recent burial is unfair.

 

“Ms. Croskey couldn’t be buried out there at Lincoln but then they allowed this burial on Friday the 13th.”

 

Although there is a cease and desist in place at the cemetery, Councilman Charles Jinright says there’s exceptions to every rule. He tells us the woman buried last Friday had bought the burial property in 1949. 

 

“The lady was buried, in my opinion, the proper way,” he says. “The family has now got closure that they deserved. She had planned for all her life to be buried there and for me to say no, I wasn’t going to do it.” 

 

But Councilman Glen Pruitt is siding with the volunteers and questioning the purpose of the cease and desist order.

 

“Why have it if we’re going to pick and choose who can be buried and who can’t?” he asks. “That’s not fair. Either everybody can be buried there or nobody can be buried there.” 

 

Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange did offer an apology, saying the city should have worked with the authority before the recent burial. But the volunteers say the apology means nothing.

 

“It’s a breach of trust,” says Hordin. “It’s a lack  of integrity because they should have come to us first and asked us how we felt about it.”