On a Saturday morning, a small group of people gathered together to help clean the Old Ville Platte Cemetery. It is the oldest cemetery in Ville Platte, and is the resting place of the city’s founder, Marcelin Garrand. The group is spearheaded by Carla Deville whose Facebook group is called Old Ville Platte Cemetery. They define themselves as a group of concerned citizens dedicated to cleaning up the cemetery, and they are frustrated with the city who they say should be taking care of it.
Deville said she has tried getting the city to help. “The town has ignored me. I have tried to contact the council but they ignore me. We feel the town should do what they’re responsible for. They should take care of it. They used to keep it up. It used to be a paid position.”
When asked why she started the clean up group, Deville said she and her friend, Cynthia Brown, noticed the unkempt appearance of the cemetery. “We started asking around. We called the police jury, and they said there is no tax to keep up the cemetery.” Deville and Brown took it upon themselves to clean up, gathering a crew with help from the Facebook group. That day they also received help from Ardoin’s Funeral Home who provided donuts, water, and helping hands to pick up trash and cut grass.
When asked what it means to her to see volunteers, she said, “I am very overwhelmed with the people coming out today.” She said in addition to the founder of Ville Platte, who dedicated the land for the cemetery, there are many veterans buried there. “People from all walks of life are buried here. I hope people can open their eyes and wake up to maybe come see the cemetery a little more and pay attention.”
Councilman Mike Perron responded to Deville’s comments. He said he never ignored Deville because he never knew she contacted him. He then explained the issue with the cemetery. “It’s some old politics,” he said, meaning the city inherited the cemetery many years ago. Perron added supposedly there was an agreement made where the city was going to keep up with the cemetery, but he said, “We never found anything in the law books that says we have to keep it up.”
Perron said they do want to clean the cemetery and keep up with it. “Sometimes we poison it and pass a weed eater when we can, but we’re short staffed. Carla never talked to me about it. I have no problem talking to her. I would be glad to have something done. It’s just a fighting battle to keep it up. We used to have 12 to 15 guys in the street department, but then we were down to six people not long ago. If we had a bunch of extra people we’d tell them to go clean it, but we don’t have the extra people.”
When asked if they could pass a tax to pay for someone to keep up the cemetery, Perron said, “The public would tar and feather us if we said that. I wouldn’t have a problem with it. It’s just a losing battle. I just don’t think there’s a chance the tax would pass.” Perron did stress that he wants the city to take care of the cemetery, but their workers are stretched thin.
Mayor Jennifer Vidrine said, “The city has been working in the cemetery. The city is in the process of hiring.”
Public Works Director, Don White, said, “We’ve been in there about two or three weeks prior to the clean up group. We are doing what needs to be done to keep up the cemetery. We’ve had significant rain prior to the clean up group coming. We do what we can when weather permits. It’s not like the cemetery is totally out of control. I think it’s being blown out of proportion. We’re doing what we can. We were asked not to poison, but looking at the weather forecast, we decided the grass was going to sprout up like wild fire, so we made the decision to poison. They were concerned about mud and holes, but I told them we do go and fill up the holes with dirt from the city.”
White also said they need the public’s assistance. “If you see a sink hole let us know and we’ll fill it. I appreciate all the help we’re getting from the public. I think the public and the city can work together.”
Matt Berzas is one of the concerned citizens who tries to keep the resting place clean. He cleans, sweeps, rakes, and gets the graves ready for painting and then goes back the next day to paint his family’s graves. There are about thirteen graves he takes care of. He volunteers to help his friends’ family graves, too. “We can’t blame the city” said Berzas. “The city is broke. They’re trying but they killed all the grass. Instead of cutting the grass, they poisoned it all. Now the ground is eroding. I have a grave that the corner is falling in and the ground kind of caved in. And when the rain came, the whole place was flooded.” He said his great aunt’s grave is tilting and he has to get it fixed. He also said there is only one water faucet for the whole cemetery. “How can people work? I want to bring my pressure washer to wash some graves, but I have to run 300 feet of hose, which I’m going to do, but it’s terrible. I’m not one to be negative. I just do what I got to do.”
When asked what it means to him to keep the cemetery clean, Berzas said, “It means everything. These are our ancestors and our family.”
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NANCY DUPLECHAIN Associate Editor