Sunset Memorial Park under fire for landscaping practices

BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) — One local cemetery has come under scrutiny for their landscaping practices.

Leigh Price’s grandparents are laid to rest in the Highlawn Garden section of Sunset Memorial Park in Beckley. Her grandmother was buried back in 2011 and her grandfather, a Korean War veteran, was buried in 2019.

Price said she visits their graves whenever she can. She said she makes sure their graves are swept free of grass and dust during her visits, but that knee-high grass and weeds around their graves is not something she had anticipated being greeted with during her visits.

Nonetheless, Price said that is what she has found upon visiting their graves.

“I came in June [and] the weeds were very high. We went on vacation, I came back, the weeds were higher. They hadn’t been cut and this was July 9th. I spoke to the manager here and she said they had to fire their landscaping company and they can’t really find one that they can afford,” explained Price.

Price said she was told it was an issue of affordability and that officials with the cemetery were working on getting a new company contracted.

Price said she feels the in-house team should have done a better job of keeping the grounds mowed and the graves clean.

Michele Stone is the Vice President for People, Operations, and Quality with EverStory Partners – the parent company which owns Sunset Memorial Park.

Stone said it is not due to a lack of care or funding that the landscaping has had to wait. She said Sunset Memorial Park is still an open cemetery and that means they still perform burials. Those families whose loved ones need to be laid to rest are deemed the top priority.

The landscaping is performed around the burial schedule, according to Stone.

“The grass did grow longer than we would want [it] to be, but we were sourcing equipment for our internal team to manage the landscaping needs. The team on site is trying to manage as best they can until this new vendor is put into place,” Stone stated.

Stone said a new vendor has been approved and is due to begin work soon, however the cemetery is pushing for them to begin even faster.

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