MONTEGO BAY, St James — Churches in St James are being urged to contribute to the upkeep and maintenance of Pye River cemetery.

The appeal comes from custos of St James Bishop Conrad Pitkin, who highlighted that there are several churches that have a vested interest in the land that has, for years, been the primary burial ground for individuals in and around Montego Bay.

“Churches that have a spot in here with their members, and maybe some of their pastors are buried in here too, [I am hoping] that they will come on-board and even help to maintain the plot they have,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Thursday during a clean-up of the decrepit State-run cemetery. Work is expected to continue long past Labour Day until the burial ground is restored to some of its former glory.

The focus on cleaning the cemetery comes after a Sunday Observer series over the past few weeks exposing the disgraceful state of public burial grounds.

Throughout the day, volunteers removed trees and shrub from a large swath of the 15-acre property leaving areas accessible, for the first time in months, to people who want to visit the final resting place of their loved ones.

“I’m very elated today to see that the mayor and the council have taken this position to begin the process of bringing back the Pye River Cemetery to some semblance of decency,” said Bishop Pitkin, who has presided over a number of funerals there over the years.

Also welcoming the improvements was Antoinette Rosedom, who joined her relatives who visited the cemetery and cleaned her grandmother’s grave.

“It’s a good look, man,” she remarked.

She said during past visits it had been difficult to get to the grave.

“We have to bring machetes and chop and come in and do what we have to do,” she explained.

Now, she said, she is able to walk freely to the grave site and only has to focus on cleaning the area where her grandmother’s remains are interred.

Encouraged by the results of the day’s work, the custos is determined to see it continue.

“I’ll be the first to encourage my members to get on-board and come do what they can. Just as they would go up to the new burial parks, they will be able to come here and lay a flower or basket on their loved one’s grave,” he said.

“My recommendation is that the council put in place a committee that will see to the constant maintenance of the cemetery,” he suggested.

While not specifically pointing to a committee, Mayor of Montego Bay Councillor Richard Vernon said measures would be implemented to maintain the cemetery.

“Going forward we will be assigning dedicated persons to the cemetery,” he said.

“The cemetery is closed, normally you would have a cemetery keeper at a cemetery, but the cemetery is unofficially closed,” he pointed out.

He said that the official closure of the facility will soon be gazetted to ensure that it does not once again fall into disrepair.

Pye River Cemetery was closed after it ran out of space, but there are other facilities in St James.

“For the other 13 cemeteries, we have approximately 4,900 spaces and based on the application rate that we experience at the municipal corporation, that will take us into another 17 years,” the mayor revealed.

However, he admitted that this won’t be enough and that the search for a location for a new cemetery is on, even outside of the parish.

“We may even have conversations with our neighbouring municipalities to look at a regional cemetery and if we cannot identify that, we have to look at a cemetery within the municipality that we can dedicate for public use,” Vernon said.

During Thursday’s clean-up, a ramp was also built to provide access for the disabled in keeping with this year’s Labour Day theme, ‘Ramp up di access… show you care’.

The mayor said lights will also be installed later, with the help of Jamaica Public Service Co Ltd, to illuminate the cemetery.