‘This is a disgrace’: Lack of cemetery maintenance haunts loved ones

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Magnolia Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries in the South, dating back to the 1800s.

Between the overgrowth and graves caving in, time has not been kind to the historic cemetery.

“It’s awful,” said Mary Gill. “I just can’t believe it, but I’m gonna be here.”

It’s a sore sight.

“I mean just look around,” said Suzan Makowski. “It’s not a place where somebody wants to come and visit their loved ones. It’s trashy.”

It’s suppose to be a place where one can rest in peace, but broken headstones and grass swallowing headstones tell a different story.

“It’s a historical site, but you can’t see it from the overgrowth,” said Makowski.

Every weekend, Makowski and her family come out to cut the grass. A few plots over, so does Thomasine Deer and her family, something they say the city doesn’t do.

“It’s always an excuse,” said Deer said. “We got a piece of equipment down, we’ve got somebody out sick, there’s one excuse after the other.”

Gill said: “It’s an embarrassment to the city. It’s a disgrace to Augusta.”

Magnolia Cemetery is owned by the city.

Parks and Recreation Director Maurice McDowell told News 12: “The City’s Interim moved all cemetery maintenance under the purview of the Richmond County Correctional Institution.”

Gill said: “When we’re gone, who is going to take care of it? I mean, who’s going to step up and try to see that it’s taken care of.”

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