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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Complaints that the Salt Lake City cemetery is in shabby shape are on the rise.
Some say the grass is brown and weedy. The headstones are sinking and the streets and sidewalks are crumbling.
Salt Lake City Public Services Director Rick Graham says the 158-year-old cemetery needs a lot of expensive upkeep, but the city manages the best that it can.
Much of the work in 250-acre cemetery is done by hand, including watering and trimming the grass around the upright headstones, Graham says.
The city plans to raise perpetual care fees paid by plot owners, but Graham says that will still leave the one (M)million dollar cemetery budget short.
The cemetery was created in 1847 and has 119,000 gravestones.
City councilman Carlton Christensen says that because the facility is a walking history tour of former city leaders, the problems should be fixed.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
