Dry grass this summer is to blame for cemetery condition

Dear Editor,

I am the fiancée of the man that owns the mowing business and mows several properties for the town of Berkshire. I would like to correct misinformation stated by, as well as provide information to, the person that wrote in regarding the Berkshire Cemetery.

There are several cemeteries in Berkshire, but I will assume this person was writing about Evergreen Cemetery, which is the large one off of 38. My fiancé has been mowing Evergreen Cemetery for about ten years.

All of us know it was a very dry summer. As many people know, when it is dry out the grass does not grow but instead may turn brown and die while weeds grow, making everything look scraggly. My fiancé does not believe in milking the town of Berkshire for every cent he can possibly get from mowing. If you cut grass when it is not growing, because it has been very dry, you run the risk of damaging the grass because of something called the scalping effect. It was due to those two reasons that he did not mow as often as he normally would during a typical mowing season.

Regarding the comment that decorations were mowed over and destroyed, his mother and his oldest son are buried there and the upkeep of that cemetery is personal to him. He would never blatantly destroy decorations. At times, despite being careful, decorations do get hit with the weed whacker when weed whacking around the headstones, or if they’re more toward the walk space they may get nudged with the mower but that is much less common. This is something that happens in all cemeteries, not just with him.

His suggestion to ensure this does not happen to your loved one’s decorations is to create a perimeter around the headstones and take responsibility for maintaining the area within that perimeter.

In reply to the comment about him being on a riding lawn mower and going fast, a fast mower doesn’t equate to a horrible mowing job any more than a slow mower equates to a good mowing job. There are many variables to how a lawn looks after mowing, things like dips in the ground, the different types of grass in different areas, rocks, weeds or other ground cover, sharpness of blades, level of deck, experience of the person running the mower, etc.

The dry grass and prominence of scraggly weeds were a big contributing factor in how things looked this year. It takes him about five to six hours to mow the entire cemetery, not including the weed whacking; or two days at the end of the mowing season it takes him to trim the trees, clean up the trimmings, and dispose of them. During a typical mowing season, it needs to be mowed in entirety every two weeks with a partial mowing about every seven days. During a typical mowing season he works his full time job with the state during the day and spends most evenings and weekends mowing for the town; so if you sensed an urgency from him about getting the job done maybe it was so he could spend some time with his family or take a break to eat.

Sincerely,

Jamie O’Connor

Berkshire, N.Y.