Terry Andrews-Blue has spent most of his life in Arroyo Grande. His brother, parents and grandparents are buried at the Arroyo Grande Cemetery.
Andrews-Blue recently reached out to KSBY News, upset about weeds and overgrown grass that he said had covered his parents’ markers at the cemetery for weeks. He said he felt like he had no choice but to bring his own lawnmower and do the maintenance himself.
“Well, it would still be worse than it is now if we had not and I just couldn't stand it," Andrews-Blue said. "It's the anniversary of my mother's death this month, 44 years, and I've been coming out here all those years, or someone else has been, to help maintain it.”
Andrews-Blue said he comes to the Arroyo Grande Cemetery at least once a week and hasn’t seen the grass cut or weeds removed in the past two months.
However, Michael Marsalek, who has been managing the cemetery for more than 40 years, said his team cleans up the cemetery every weekday.
“I saw somebody out with a lawn mower the other day," Marsalek said. "In fact, we had mowed that a few days before, that section. So when he went out mowing, I thought maybe he was doing it because he felt good about helping out the family. Some people do that.”
Andrews-Blue said he’s not the only one who has taken maintenance into their own hands.
“We've been out here where we've seen people throw their hands in the air and then come back while we've still been here to go get power tools to maintain their own loved ones' graves,” Andrews-Blue said.
Michele Valdivieso has family buried at the Arroyo Grande Cemetery.
“Every time you come out here, either something's broken or it's over on someone else's headstone or there's just grass all over the place, like this last week," Valdivieso said. "I'm all dinged up from pulling weeds and trying to cut them with this little bitty pair of scissors."
Marsalek said if people have concerns, they’re welcome to visit the office, call or leave a note asking for the work to be done. He said the only time they aren’t mowing the lawn is during burial services.
“We have, usually have a lot of services, but when somebody has a problem, we normally address it if they come to the office and tell us, we'll go out and weed eat. It's kind of like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. We start off and really by the time we get over, we've got to do it again.”
