Lack of Respect for a Cemetery
Sometime back in the summer my senior researcher for the CRG contacted the 5th District Henry County Commissioner about a cemetery in his district that needs to be cleaned. This cemetery is very old and has a historical person buried there from Stockbridge. He is Mr. Gossett one of the first town commissioners when it was a township and founder of the Stockbridge Presbyterian Church. The cemetery is the Gossett-Dodson-Hanson Cemetery on Flat Rock Road. A couple of years ago a teacher from Stockbridge got some class members together to help clean the cemetery, but he can’t do this all the time.
The 5th district commissioner got with DOT and other parts of the Henry County Government and they said it was not their problem. Well it is according to the laws of the State of Georgia pertaining to abandoned cemeteries. The chairman of the board wanted to help, but was maneuvered around by the county manager. This all looks bad and there is no other way to state it but they don’t care.
They are supposed to clean the cemetery and have a group such as the Juvenile Court to keep it clean a couple of times a year. This is a situation where the people of the community will have to take action by contacting the BOC and raise the roof about the lack of respect for the dead. It is time.
Alfred Britt, Founder of the CRG
It is a real shame that the county government will not follow through on what is their duty to take care of an old abandoned historic cemetery as prescribed by the Secretary of State through laws passed by the State Legislature. Maybe one day they will become in compliance with the law.
ReplyDelete