- Discover Louisiana's flavors on the new hot sauce trail
- Southern University fires head football coach Terrence Graves
- Mayor-President advances Johnston Street and Louisiana Avenue revitalization initiative
- Border Report Live: New buoys warn of National Defense Area in Rio Grande
- Lafayette community mourns loss of retired officer Paul 'Lumberjack' Taylor
Family shares concerns over lack of maintenance at Ville Platte cemetery
0
VILLE PLATTE, La. (KLFY) -- Overgrown grass and trees are causing frustration for families visiting a cemetery in Ville Platte as they struggle to access their loved ones' graves.
Randy Freeman, a local resident, says three of his relatives are buried in the cemetery located on Shuff Road in Ville Platte. He says he and his family visit the cemetery every year to clean and paint their relatives' graves, but the overgrowth has made this impossible in recent years.
"They just let the long grass take over, you know we can't even get back there, this has to stop, something has to be done about this," said Randy.
According to the Evangeline Parish Assessor's Office, the graveyard is owned by Saint Matthews Baptist Church, which has been abandoned for over ten years.
News 10 reached out to the Evangeline Parish Police Jury on the issues, and they say parish officials maintains one side of the cemetery, while the other side, across the street, is the church's responsibility. However, Freeman says all parts of the cemetery should be kept up.
"They've got the front side looking good, but the back side is being neglected, nobody is taking care of the cemetery," Randy said.
Loretta Freeman, Randy's wife, also expressed her disappointment in seeing her husband's loved one's graves not taken care of.
"It's not right, and the owners who are supposed to be taking care of it, they should be very ashamed of it because it's not presentable for no one to come in this," said Loretta.
The Freeman family says they hope for action to be taken so they can continue their tradition of maintaining their loved ones' graves and ensure the cemetery is presentable.
"The main goal is to keep the cemetery presentable and clean so we can get back there and attend to our loved one, and paint the graves like we always do," said Randy.
All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by KLFY. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by KLFY staff before being published.