CLEVELAND, Tenn. - A recent agreement between Sunset Memorial Gardens and state regulators has received praise concerning remediation and upkeep plans for the cemetery.
As part of a Nov. 20 consent order filed by the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, cemetery owner Cecil Lawrence Inc. of Dallas, Ga., has agreed to a five-year program that calls for entombment experts to make inspections of Sunset Memorial Gardens' mausoleums during the spring and summer months.
The cemetery, located on North Lee Highway, was fined $5,000 and faced a possible suspension of its license according to an Aug. 25 consent order, which cited a state inspector who concluded that noxious odors emanating from the cemetery's mausoleums were caused by "decomposing human remains."
"This agreement is a significant step forward for the entire Cleveland community to restore Sunset Memorial Gardens to a condition of dignity and honor for those it serves," said department spokesman Kevin Walters in an email.
The agreement was reached following a Nov. 2 report detailing a comprehensive site inspection and a timeline for remedial recommendations by Ensure-A-Seal, an entombment solutions company based in Pennsylvania. The remediation plan was a key condition of the Aug. 25 consent order.
"I did not detect or see any fluid stains, fluids or experience any decomposition odor in any of the occupied or unoccupied crypt chambers," said Ensure-A-Seal founder and CEO David Yearsley in a letter accompanying the report.
Yearsley recommended that the cemetery incorporate "an effective casket protection product" for new entombments and initiate continual monitoring of the mausoleum crypts. The cemetery, which averages 20 entombments a year, has not utilized casket protection as part of its entombment program during its 60 years of operation, he said.
Unless otherwise approved by the department, the Nov. 20 consent order requires Sunset Memorial Gardens to remediate all issues discovered during crypt inspections within seven business days.
The state also will continue its own longstanding program of quarterly inspections of the cemetery through 2017.
The recent consent order goes beyond mausoleum odors and addresses other "current and longstanding issues" associated with the cemetery property, Walters said.
Sunset Memorial Gardens has been given 75 days to respond to around 217 citizen complaints that have been received by the Department of Commerce and Insurance. The cemetery is to provide written responses concerning resolutions to allegations that include failures to maintain grounds, gravestones and crypt plates.
"The [cemetery] owners and management are clearly cooperative with the state," said attorney William Colvin, who represents Cecil Lawrence Inc. "They have never taken an adversarial position with the state in these matters."
Sunset Memorial Gardens was very satisfied with a positive inspection conducted by Ensure-A-Seal around Nov. 20, Colvin said.
Paul Leach is based in Cleveland. Email him at paul.leach.press@gmail.com.