UNDERBUSHING the cemetery in Stanleytown is high on the agenda of the Mayor and Town Council (M&TC) of New Amsterdam, and works have already been started to remove the huge bushes that greatly inconvenience persons trying to locate the final resting places of their deceased loved ones. In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, acting Town Clerk, Mrs. Sharon Alexander said the M&TC has received support from the Rajkumar family to clear the south eastern side of the cemetery, and the municipality would continue to work in phases to ensure that the entire cemetery is cleared and maintained.

“We are having a problem with attracting competent labourers, so whatever resources we have at our disposal, we would have to work with to ensure that the cemetery is properly kept,” she said.

In the past, the Council made full use of available labour to undertake routine cutting and burning of bushes in the cemetery, but the workforce has declined in recent years, and the cemetery has become a public eyesore.

“We want to ensure that our cemetery is well kept, and we will put our best foot forward in achieving our goal,” Alexander declared.

Over the years, a number of persons have had to abandon their search to locate the graves of their deceased folks precisely because of the thick vegetation in certain areas of the Stanleytown cemetery, but with this new M&TC initiative, persons would be able to make periodic visits to the cemetery to do maintenance of the tombs and graves of their loved ones.

“We do realise that if the cemetery is cleared routinely, people would be encouraged to make regular visits; and when they do little things like painting tombs and clearing grass from around them, it will help to beautify the area,” she opined.

The clearing of the cemetery would also afford the M&TC an opportunity to know where plots are available for future burials.