The single office worker at Frederick Douglass Memorial Park must dig through old paper grave records because there is no computer. The two groundskeepers -- only one is full-time -- must maintain the plots and handle all burials at the 17-acre cemetery on Amboy Road in Oakwood.
Those were some of the startling facts revealed to families who have loved ones buried at the largely African American cemetery in Oakwood during an open house today. The event was sponsored by the nonprofit Friends of Abandoned Cemeteries, which cares for the Island's bankrupt and deserted cemeteries and hopes Frederick Douglass, named for the famous abolitionist and writer, won't be added to its list.
"If it goes that way, if it's not saved, this would be the largest abandoned cemetery on Staten Island," said Lynn Rogers, head of the group. "But it can be saved. That's what this meeting is about -- that's our mission, to inform the descendants and to help them set up a committee and take control."
Taking control has been the most difficult thing to do since the former cemetery director, Dorothea Morton King, was removed by court order and told to repay $667,593, money she allegedly took from the cemetery's maintenance fund. She left but the money has not been repaid.
Some relatives learn about the financial troubles only when they come for a visit.
Rita Lopez and her sister Maria Fines traveled to the cemetery on Holy Saturday to visit their mother's grave, but the gate was locked.
"We went all around looking for another way in to visit my mother," said Ms. Lopez, who lives in Brooklyn.
The women did not know that the court-appointed receiver handling the cemetery's funds decided last month to shut the memorial park on most weekends to cut costs.
"It's not a monetary thing, it's a spiritual thing," said Ronald Bell of Stapleton. "Black or white, no cemetery should be abandoned or closed."
Mr. Bell came yesterday with a brother and uncle. The men said a fair number of family members, including an uncle who served in World War I, are buried at Frederick Douglass.
Ronella Martin buried her 60-year-old mother, Nowell Martin, at the cemetery last September after she died of cancer.
Ronella said when she visited the grave on Mother's Day, she found that the tombstone had been moved about a foot. A grounds worker who moved it back for her today said he forgot to replace it after laying some concrete for a foundation.
That was little comfort for Ronella Martin.
"I feel you are disrespecting my mother. It should not have been moved without notifying the family," she said.
Virginia Footman, the only office worker at Frederick Douglass, said the small staff is trying to do its best with limited funds.
And they've been getting some help from Taft Hiller, a corrections officer at the Arthur Kill Correctional Facility who brings a cleanup team of prison inmates to the cemetery about twice a week.
Hiller, whose two grandmothers and an uncle are buried at the cemetery, said it was his supervisor who read about the cemetery's troubles in the Advance and suggested they bring the cleanup team there.
Similar service and product donations -- not monetary donations -- is what Ms. Rogers recommends for the time being.
Today, she was encouraging family members to form a special committee to save the cemetery. She and the court-appointed receiver for the cemetery have said plot owners must get involved and form a nonprofit corporation that eventually would take over the day-to-day operations of Frederick Douglass.
-- Contributed by Karen O'Shea