Middletown's Pioneer Cemetery

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   If he does not respond, then it should be very telling about his commitment to his constituents and citizens in general.

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angelababy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Resident Joined: Aug 04 2010 Status: Offline Points: 103	Post Options Post Reply Quote angelababy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Middletown's Pioneer Cemetery Posted: Oct 13 2010 at 10:31pm
	If he does not respond, then it should be very telling about his commitment to his constituents and citizens in general.

angelababy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Resident Joined: Aug 04 2010 Status: Offline Points: 103	Post Options Post Reply Quote angelababy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Aug 31 2010 at 10:15pm
	A couple of months ago, Mr. Phelps informed Ms. Moon that the beds were going to be removed and returned to grass.

Guests Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Resident	Post Options Post Reply Quote Guests Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: May 28 2010 at 12:06pm
	Hi friends, really its a nice photograph of cemetery. Thanks < ="-" ="text/; =utf-8"> < name="GENERATOR" ="Office.org 3.1 Linux"> < ="text/"> Cemetery Markers

Vivian Moon Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: May 16 2008 Location: Middletown, Ohi Status: Offline Points: 4187	Post Options Post Reply Quote Vivian Moon Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 25 2009 at 4:05pm
	Yes, we are still doing burials at Middletown Cemetery. Edwin Anderson was buried in August 2009. No plots are not for sell. You must now own a plot to be buied at this cemetery. Because of sloppy record keeping by the City over the years we do not know if there are available lots. I'm still working on proving just who and where people are buried in this cemetery. For the past five years I have been pulling all the death certificates and obituaries of those buried here to help prove these facts. I believe the Public Works Dept has the keys to this cemetery.

Hermes Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Prominent MUSA Citizen Joined: May 19 2009 Location: Middletown Status: Offline Points: 1637	Post Options Post Reply Quote Hermes Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 25 2009 at 2:32pm
	409 brings up an interesting question...is the city still allowing burials in Pioneer ? Are there plots still available ? Who has the key to the gate ? Police ? Funeral homes ? City employee ?

Vivian Moon Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: May 16 2008 Location: Middletown, Ohi Status: Offline Points: 4187	Post Options Post Reply Quote Vivian Moon Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 25 2009 at 11:59am
	Well you wait until one of the families drives all the way to Ohio and can't visit the cemetery and call me. I WILL BE GIVING OUT COUNCIL MEMEBERS HOME PHONE NUMBERS FOR THEM TO CALL...and they will be very very angry when they call. Maybe they should call Hamilton and find out how they open and close their cemeteries?

409 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Prominent MUSA Citizen Joined: Mar 27 2009 Status: Offline Points: 1014	Post Options Post Reply Quote 409 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 25 2009 at 11:30am
	Passed the cemetery at 11:00 this morning. Gates are locked!!! This is pathetic. I suppose a saturday burial would be out of the question, assuming they were also locked yesterday.

Vivian Moon Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: May 16 2008 Location: Middletown, Ohi Status: Offline Points: 4187	Post Options Post Reply Quote Vivian Moon Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 25 2009 at 7:41am
	Just to update everyone...I still have not heard who ordered the removal of the plants or where the plants were moved too. Maybe they are now located in City workers yards.

Gary Barge Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Immigrant Joined: Feb 06 2009 Status: Offline Points: 50	Post Options Post Reply Quote Gary Barge Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 24 2009 at 2:18pm
	Vivian I hope and pray that the citizens of Middletown elect all new council members and start fresh from ground zero. I am still beside myself over the cemetary issue. Don't be fooled. I have been watching every move that our administration has been making over this issue. I can guarantee you if I were your representative at this time heads would have rolled. Unfortunately I am still just a "usual suspect" as they like to call concerned citizens. I am on a very tight budget this year for campaigning so I am trying to get out the vote anyway possible. Let the cemetary commission know they have my full support. I know how it feels after 6 years working on the canal I think that we finally have come to common ground and they agreed at the last council meeting to move the discharge downstream to eliminate the nusiance. If elected in Nov 3 I will work just as hard on all the issues that has brought our city to the brink of destruction. Thanks for your vote of confidence and the cemetary committee. Gary Barge 1st Ward Candidate

wasteful Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Citizen Joined: Jul 27 2009 Status: Offline Points: 793	Post Options Post Reply Quote wasteful Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 10:42pm
	da that would entail OT and possibly make a few citizens happy. Can't have that. Hate to be the employee that has to run around every day at 8 am and 3 pm to lock it up. It is like children having the TV taken away from them. City has hit a new low.

da120757 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Resident Joined: May 16 2009 Location: Middletown Ohio Status: Offline Points: 222	Post Options Post Reply Quote da120757 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 9:54pm
	yep just came from Cemetery Gates are Locked!! Wonder if they will open it tomorrow and sunday?

accuro Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Resident Joined: May 31 2009 Status: Offline Points: 103	Post Options Post Reply Quote accuro Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 5:00pm
	Ms. Moon- can you provide an update on what your legal action(s) have been associated with the removal of the plants, compensatory damages I am referencing, and have you filed cliams for damages in Butler Cty Court? Also, could you share your attorney's name just out of curiosity. You may have a claim under retaliation in violation of public policy associated with your efforts and if the city knew these plants were there for 3-5 years, did nothing, and suddenly removed them, its undoubtedly a retaliation act. Ironic the stay for the hearing was associated with the city stating it was holding training on non discrimination and harrassment in the work place while causing you emotional distress. Someday when I leave Middletown, I'll post all the horror stories I'm aware by the 'beat down' city tactics, as well as the 'favors' for the 'insiders' club. If it will make you feel any better, and I know it won't, just drive on Briehel and see the crumbling curbs as well as all over the city. If the city won't maintain its own infrastructure for the living, its a given they surely don't care nor respect the deceased.
	An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out. - Will Rogers

Vivian Moon Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: May 16 2008 Location: Middletown, Ohi Status: Offline Points: 4187	Post Options Post Reply Quote Vivian Moon Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 4:32pm
	Gary The Middletown Cemetery Committee hopes and prays you get elected. We could sure use a friend to stop this madness. The Doty Family Plot was a weed patch in 2004 when I walked into it. I started work on the Doty Rose Garden in 2006 while I was digging and turning the soil I found the small footstone of Daniel Doty about 18" down that had been buried for many years. This area is now filled with 7 red double knock out rose bushes and 6 big white peony bushes. They are all in bloom on Memorial Day and put on beauitful show for the families. These roses were paid for by a grant from the Middletown Community Foundation and the hostas and peonies were a donation from Marjorie Root Anderson The 10 hostas that were planted in the front of this bed are now missing I sent Randy a copy of this photo to post for me.

Vivian Moon Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: May 16 2008 Location: Middletown, Ohi Status: Offline Points: 4187	Post Options Post Reply Quote Vivian Moon Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 4:02pm
	warmandfuzzy The plants that were removed were paid for by the Middletown Cemetery Committee or the plants were donated by family members of Middletown Cemetery. I believe a few of the plants were paid for with funds from the Middletown Community Foundation. None of the plants and shrubs that were removed were paid for by City Funds.

warmandfuzzy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Immigrant Joined: Sep 21 2009 Status: Offline Points: 17	Post Options Post Reply Quote warmandfuzzy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 1:20pm
	Ms. Moon, your work on the cemetery is to be commended, but reading your posts, I'm not clear about something. WHO exactly paid for the plants that were removed? Were these plants paid for out of your personal funds - the Middletown Cemetery Committee funds - or did the monies come from another source? Thanks

Gary Barge Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Immigrant Joined: Feb 06 2009 Status: Offline Points: 50	Post Options Post Reply Quote Gary Barge Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 1:05pm
	Folks, Hasn't anybody figured out what is going on in the city? Our founding fathers lay in the cemetary and are being ripped apart by the foolishness of a power struggle. I find this despicable. This is in the ward I am running for and I can GUARANTEE that if this was being done on my watch as 1st Ward representative heads would have rolled. If our city administration is doing this to spite any organization or group or individuals the mayior should take the position and correct this problem ASAP. If any of the allegations in any of these posts are true and factual then there should be a house cleaning. This is merely an act from what I can see as total disrespect and foolish decision making for the founders of our city. Gary Barge 1st Ward Candidate

accuro Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Resident Joined: May 31 2009 Status: Offline Points: 103	Post Options Post Reply Quote accuro Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 12:39pm
	You're point is well made, and it reminded me of one of my favorite poems, In Flanders Field. For those whom haven't read it, it was written about a battle in WWI and the deaths on the battlefield after a major had delivered the eulogy of a dead soldier. I'm surprised you are surpised Ms. Moon. Middletown is the city of entitlement, protecting the needs of the ungry beast called the city workers, and has rarely been about the citizens since the early 1980's. I wouldn't be surpised if Dean Cowan leaves academia to become some change agent for downtown, which will never happen. Obviously, the city's plan is to gut as much if not all of downtown and rebuild, but who would be interested in Middletown? Young adults attracted to pollution, waste, abuse, Chicago style politics, mediocre school system, apathy to the point the same candidates run year after year? It won't happen. The money trail in donations clearly shows the bidding to be done for the Atrium and AK Steel. I'm sorry it took you many years to be ashamed of middletown, i was ashamed and disgusted with my decision in 1989 when relocated with P & G. The absolute worse decision I ever made. Middletown will never rebound in the housing market, nor will the city, council, nor school board ever change. I waited my 20 years. Its a city of regression, not progression.
	An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out. - Will Rogers

Vivian Moon Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: May 16 2008 Location: Middletown, Ohi Status: Offline Points: 4187	Post Options Post Reply Quote Vivian Moon Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 12:20pm
	DEATH OF AN OLD CEMETERY The death of an old cemetery does not happen quickly but rather slowly and quietly over many years. The names of the once proud people who founded the city, quietly resting there are forgotten, their descendants scattered to the wind. Soldiers, that once heard the roar of cannons and answered the call to fight for our freedom, rest quietly their battle on earth now over. Their names and battles only remembered in some dusty history book sitting on a shelf at the local library. The tombstones marked with the family name that once stood strong and tall, gleaming in the sunshine, are vandalized and fall silently to the ground broken and forgotten. Stone by stone they start to litter the landscape. The peaceful green grass becomes choked with weeds and litter now replaces the wild flowers that once bloomed in the springtime. Poison ivy starts to cover the stones. Families no longer make the pilgrimage on Memorial Day to put flowers on the graves or wipe the dust from the tombstones. They don't share the stories and struggles of the family with the new generations. Soon their names are forgotten in time. The City keeps growing and the old cemetery becomes an eyesore and really need to be removed because now the City needs more parking all in the name of progress. This story happens all over our country every year. It happens because of the inaction and apathy of the community leaders. And now it’s happening in Middletown, Ohio. Over the years the Middletown Cemetery has been vandalized time and time again. The once beautiful stones are now nothing more than rubble that littler the grounds because the city does not have time to secure the property or reset the stones. The vault that once needed only minor repairs is now in critical condition from the utter neglect of our city leaders over the years. Now City Manager Judy Gilleland and Mayor Larry Mulligan have recommend to the City Council that the sacred grounds of the Middletown Cemetery be desecrated further by the removal of the vault that once held the bodies of those buried there. I never thought I would live to see this day....but for the first time in my life I’m ashamed to be part of the Middletown Community.

Vivian Moon Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: May 16 2008 Location: Middletown, Ohi Status: Offline Points: 4187	Post Options Post Reply Quote Vivian Moon Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 11:16am
	Friends of blog I do hope you understand that many people have helped me over the past 6 years with labor, supplies and donations. Without their help the cemetery would still be a weed field. I did not make all this public so I could say “Look what I did”. The only reason I made all of this public was to “Save the Cemetery”. Thank you for all for your kind words and support.

Nick_Kidd Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Resident Joined: May 15 2009 Location: Middletown Status: Offline Points: 112	Post Options Post Reply Quote Nick_Kidd Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 10:59am
	Vivian, since your hard work had made much improvment to the Pioneer Cemetery, it no longer fit in to city hall's master plan. How could a well planted and cared for cemetery fit in to our terrible streets, section 8 housing slum that council has created? You, working alone, have made more improvment to Middletown than the city officials and all of our tax dollars have in the last thirty years. It seems funny that the city doesn't have time to maintain the flower beds, but have time for a city worker to sit and watch the cemetery (for what purpose?). Council's silence on this subject at the last meeting is just how they handle all of the REAL problems of the city.
	Government is not the answer to problems, government is the problem.

Vivian Moon Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: May 16 2008 Location: Middletown, Ohi Status: Offline Points: 4187	Post Options Post Reply Quote Vivian Moon Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 10:14am
	Why are both the Keep Middletown Beautiful folks and the Historical Society folks strangely silent on this issue?? Kelly I contacted contact Keep Middletown Beautiful several years ago. They only take care of their own plantings. The Middletown Historical Society refused to file grants for the Middletown Cemetery Committee.

randy Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Official Joined: Jan 13 2009 Location: Middletown Status: Offline Points: 1586	Post Options Post Reply Quote randy Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 9:25am
	Email and pictures from Mrs. Moon to me: When I met with the City in 2005 concerning the cemetery being vandalized, Mark Hoffman stated that the police could not see into the cemetery on the Richmond Street side of the cemetery. It is the job of the Public Works Department to spray all fence lines around the cemetery in the spring so they do not need to be string trimmed by the mowing crew. In the spring of 2009 I called Ron Phelps and requested that the West Fence Line be double sprayed on both sides so the shrubs and stink trees would not return. About 6 weeks later I called him again and told him that the fence lines were still not sprayed and the shrubs and stink trees were growing again...he got mad. I then told him that I would not clear the fence line again for the City... When I walked into cemetery in 2004 the entire west fence line was covered. A big hole large enough to drive a car though, was in the back section. It took us three years to clear this fence line because the shrubs had grown through, around and into the fence. It was so bad that we had to hand cut out each branch so the fence would not be damaged. The very back section is still not completed. Kevin Ingram and his crew helped me in 2009 to clear some o this fence line. Drive down Richmond Street and I think you will fully understand why I was a bit upset with Mr. Phelps. Vivian **See photos I have driven down Richmond Street and it is not pretty.
	Call me for a www.CameraSecurityNow.com quote 513-422-1907 x357

Vivian Moon Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Council Joined: May 16 2008 Location: Middletown, Ohi Status: Offline Points: 4187	Post Options Post Reply Quote Vivian Moon Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 9:05am
	Why are both the Keep Middletown Beautiful folks and the Historical Society folks strangely silent on this issue?? And again I ask: What is the underlying problem here? Is it purely budgetary?? Is it purely revenge? What??? Kelly, because of legal issues I’m unable to answer your questions on this blog. However if you really want to know the answers to your questions you are welcome to call me at 727-1942.

wasteful Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Citizen Joined: Jul 27 2009 Status: Offline Points: 793	Post Options Post Reply Quote wasteful Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 8:47am
	I don't know da, but when I first saw the pic of the sign that was my first assumption also they would be locking it up using city employees. Can not think of any other reason to close at 3:00pm and no Weekend Hours. Doesn't make much sense.

da120757 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List MUSA Resident Joined: May 16 2009 Location: Middletown Ohio Status: Offline Points: 222	Post Options Post Reply Quote da120757 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: Oct 23 2009 at 8:37am
	so i guess i missed something? With the new Hours are they now locking the gates at the cemetery?