Families and visitors to the St. Albert Municipal Cemetery are being asked to remove all personal items, including flowers, from gravesites.
"We know that people leave things on the grave site as their way of honouring their family member and we try to be respectful of that, but at the same time, we need the site to be safe for everyone," said Chris Belke, chief Legislative Officer for the City of St. Albert.
Technically, under city bylaw 27/2008, no personal items are allowed on graves, other than officially designated flat markers and metal vases. The bylaw states that no person shall place in the cemetery anything that is not in keeping with the safety, dignity and cleanliness of the cemetery. In addition no plants, seeds or trees may be grown at gravesites except as permitted by the city manager.
Small personal items such as teddy bears can become tangled or caught up in maintenance machinery and sadly, if a mower throws a rock, it could break fragile items that have been left on graves by loved ones.
"There could be items that are meaningful as mementoes and that are very important. We respect that, but if they are important and should be preserved, it would be better that they be kept off site so they are not destroyed," said Belke.
Winter poses other problems for maintenance staff and complicates the problem, however respectful maintenance staff may be.
"It has happened in the past that things have been damaged. Sometimes, plain and simply, you cannot see small items when they are covered by snow," Belke said.
City staff will be conducting regular maintenance and clean-up activities at the St. Albert Municipal Cemetery on Poundmaker Road between Oct. 3 and Oct. 16 and the City is asking that all items be removed before then.
