UPDATE: The state of Tennessee and Cleveland’s Sundown Memorial Gardens have entered into an settlement to keep away from formal costs towards the cemetery.
Sundown has confronted a sequence of complaints through the years for being unkempt and poorly maintained.
The settlement additionally stipulates the Sundown Memorial Gardens will submit proof that it regained lively company standing in Tennessee, and should submit revised annual stories for 2019 and 2020.
The corporate was additionally charged a $750 civil penalty by the state.
Moreover, the pre-need deposits and gross sales and can deposited in a belief, and companies not delivered by the yr finish are to be famous.
PREVIOUS STORY: Native 3 Information has been overlaying quite a few points towards Sundown Memorial Gardens since 2013, in response to our stories.
The Tennessee Division of Commerce and Insurance coverage says during the last yr, 5 complaints have been submitted.
The newest grievance we’ve got heard is people who misplaced their family members are seeing grave markers taking a very long time to be positioned.
“He at all times used to name me pumpkin,” mentioned Jacquelyn Arp, whose dad handed away final yr.
She mentioned she nonetheless hasn’t gotten his grave marker from Sundown Memorial Gardens after calling and even moving into particular person to ask.
“It makes me very annoyed. It is like a slap within the face truthfully since you need him to be remembered,” she mentioned.
“(I filed a grievance) I did it by way of the Higher Enterprise Bureau,” mentioned Arp.
Mitch McClure mentioned he additionally filed a grievance on August tenth, of this yr however with District Legal professional Steve Crump.
He mentioned he then received his mum or dad’s marker final week after it was bought in 1994- so about 28 years later.
“It’s unhappy and it’s disrespectful and never solely my dad and mom. There are a whole bunch and a whole bunch of individuals buried in that cemetery and it’s disrespectful to them as nicely,” mentioned McClure.
Complaints ranged from unkempt grass, a collapsing roof, and now lacking markers.
Once we arrived the grass gave the impression to be reduce, however some markers had been lacking.
Only a plastic marker standing within the place of the place Arp’s dad was laid to relaxation.
We known as the proprietor of Sundown Memorial Gardens, Cecil Lawrence, and he refused to remark.
“My concern is that it’s going to return to the state of disrepair because it has been,” mentioned McClure.
“I simply need them to acknowledge what they did was improper and simply lay the stone already,” mentioned Arp.
The state reached an settlement to supervise the regulation together with complaints concerning Sundown Memorial Gardens.
The Tennessee Division of Commerce & Insurance coverage oversees the regulation of funeral institutions and cemeteries in Tennessee. Shoppers who have complaints can file them online.
