LYFORD — Three years after the city took over the local cemetery, officials still are working to help families who have buried their loved ones there for generations.
Now, city commissioners are considering allowing those families to bury immediate family members in the Guadalupe Cemetery on North Oleander Street.
“At this time, only husband and wife are allowed to be buried in the old section,” City Secretary Lydia Moreno said yesterday.
Since April 2013, Moreno said, the city has worked to oversee the cemetery’s maintenance.
But the job got bigger.
“This has become an issue for us,” Mayor Henry De La Paz said.
Poor record-keeping has raised big questions.
“There was little or no record of who bought plots,” De La Paz said. “Some people have documented proof of purchase. We’re taking it on a case-by-case basis.”
Before the city stepped in, a committee oversaw the cemetery’s operations.
But when the committee dissolved, the city took over.
Moreno said the cemetery dates to about 1942, when a resident donated the three acres to give poor residents a place to bury their loved ones.
