Huge ice chunks that still cover much of Maumee’s Riverside Cemetery have left historical grave markers toppled and damaged, and the city anticipating a sizable repair bill.
About three-quarters of the historic cemetery next to Side Cut Metropark is covered by ice debris, Mayor Richard Carr said, and public access will be prohibited for several weeks. Side Cut too remains closed because of damage.
The good news, Mr. Carr said, is that newer gravestones don’t appear to be damaged, just knocked off their bases, and Maumee will pay to put them back. But Civil War-era markers, many made of sandstone or limestone, have been damaged.
The oldest gravestone Mr. Carr saw was 1806, while Toledo-Lucas County Library staff said Friday the oldest grave they know of is from 1836, as published in the Northwest Ohio Genealogical Society’s “Tombstone Inscriptions of Lucas County, Ohio” from 1988.
PHOTO GALLERY: Click here for more photos of the damage
City officials met Friday with U.S. Rep. Bob Latta (R., Bowling Green) to discuss federal-aid options for repair work. Street repairs alone will cost about $300,000, said Joseph Camp, Maumee’s director of public service, while Mayor Carr estimated the total repair bill at between $500,000 and $1 million.
The National Cemetery Administration of the U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs replaces government-furnished headstones and markers, and many of those damaged at Riverside appear to be military markers, Mr. Carr said. But requests for replacements must come from relatives, he was told.
“There's not going to be family members of those people,” he said.
Mr. Latta told city officials he’d work to change those federal regulations, and also lobby for the area to be labeled a disaster area so relief funds could help pay for the repairs, Mr. Carr said.
The cemetery, established in the early 1840’s, has been damaged by ice before, including in 1847 and 1903, according to The History of Maumee by John A. Smith. The most recent floe to damage the cemetery was 1981, according to Mr. Carr.
But the extent of damage has prompted city officials to examine whether there are ways to mitigate the risk of floes invading the park in the future.
And while Mr. Carr said that most of the more recent tombstones don’t appear to be damaged, hundreds remain buried under ice. If those are damaged, it will be up to relatives to pay for repairs. The city will reset them — a significant task requiring specialized equipment — but not replace them or fix damage.
Most of the cemetery’s trees were scarred by the ice and will likely be replaced.
Contact Nolan Rosenkrans at: nrosenkrans@theblade.com or 419-724-6086, or on Twitter @NolanRosenkrans.
First Published March 21, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
