Kansas City cemetery faces threat of being shut down

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A prominent Kansas City Missouri cemetery faces the threat of being shut down over a year’s long delinquent tax bill.

XII Gates Memorial Gardens has operated for nearly 25 years.

On Thursday, locked gates and a pink tax notice stuck on that same gate by the county, put fear in those with loved ones there, many of you reaching out to FOX4.

We took those concerns straight to the owners.

FOX4 asked the owner Saundra McFadden-Weaver what the reason could be for there to be almost 4 years of a delinquent tax bill.

“There are several reasons – when I bought the partnership out there were some things due then we’ve been in internal audits and different things like that so that list would go on and on like anybody else’s would so I’m not going to make a bunch excuses,” McFadden-Weaver responded.

The gates, according to McFadden-Weaver are always locked on the July 4.

As for the taxes. A search shows that the current back tax bill dates to 2020, two years after McFadden-Weaver took sole ownership.

The amount due more than $66,000.

The issue, $35,607 is due in august or the land will be put up for auction at the delinquent land tax sale which happens on the steps of the Jackson County Courthouse, so you could say the clock is ticking.

As FOX4 was set to leave the property, Remona Cozart whose brother was laid to rest here was leaving and she shared her frustration with the owner after coming to the cemetery Thursday and seeing the notice.

“I patronize her business because she’s a woman of color I’m trying to help her. I would have put my brother somewhere else if I would have known this would happen,” Cozart said.

“I own 12 gates and I continue to own 12 gates and it’s my intention to continue owning and serving 12 gates,” McFadden-Weaver said.

FOX4 will continue to keep you updated as this story develops.

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