Brooklyn, NY – When residents demanded that heads roll after the city’s shameful response to the blizzard cleanup, they didn’t mean headstones.
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But that’s exactly what happened when Department of Sanitation workers packed load after load of snow and ice against the fence of Washington Cemetery on Bay Parkway, between McDonald Avenue and 57th Street. The metal gates buckled under the weight, toppling approximately 30 gravestones over the weekend.
“[Sanitation workers] were continually dumping snow there for several days,” said Washington Cemetery (5400 Bay Parkway) employee Mike Ciamaga, who added that cemetery officials first noticed the broken gravestones on Sunday morning. ”As of this morning they were still dumping there.”
A full tally of the broken gravestones hasn’t yet been determined, since many are buried under the snow and ice, according to Ciamaga. Most of the families affected have not yet been notified.
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Councilman Michael Nelson released the following statement:
“Weeks after dozens of gravestones were vandalized, it is absolutely disheartening and tragic to find out that Washington Cemetery and the deceased buried there have been disturbed again. This time, however, it was not done by mischievous individuals but rather by more carelessness and negligence on the part of the city. The Department of Sanitation and the City should take full responsibility for their inattention to common sense so that the families of the deceased do not incur any out of pocket cost.”
Councilman Greenfield released the following statement:
“I was incredibly disheartened to learn today that Washington Cemetery, the target of hate-filled vandalism in recent weeks, was needlessly damaged by the Sanitation Department during the City’s botched snow removal,” said Councilman David Greenfield. “After being notified of the damage, I immediately went to the cemetery, and the scene was nothing less than appalling. By my count, over a dozen headstones were toppled under the weight of the collapsed snow mountain that was placed there by the Sanitation Department. I am certain that more headstones will be discovered when cemetery caretakers clean up Sanitation’s mess. It is shocking to me that the Sanitation Department is not just incapable of serving the living, but also respecting the dead,” concluded Councilman Greenfield. The Councilman encourages families whose late relatives’ tombstones were damaged to contact his office at 718-853-2704 for assistance in filing a claim against the city.
oh no!
i can see my tax bill going up next year. who knows how much they’ll have to pay to settle all those lawsuits
Did king bloomberg visit the site , or said , or condemned, or assured?. I think he will tell the dead to go to a Broadway show…
Would they have done this to a Christian cemetery??
What a disgrace!! Sanitation Dept has no respect for the living or the deceased
I didn’t realize that they have the authority to dump snow on private property. Or could it be that these workers shared some beers with the supervisors who spent the night drinking on 18th Avenue and didn’t realize where they were?
Shame on the sanitation Dept. and Shame on Bloomberg.
The shoddy performance of the Sanitation Dept., including the damage to Washington Cemetery shoujld be brought up at the City Council hearings. The Sanitation Dept., by law cannot dump snow on private property. In the old days, flat bed trucks would haul the snow to the Hudson and East Rivers, to be dumped.
Gives a new meaning to “being buried in a pile of snow”.
The sanitation dept broke the sidewalk in front of my house while plowing. Anybody know how I can go about getting them to pay for the repair ?
i was on the f train at bay parkway. i had seen all the snow piled against the fence and had a feeling that something like this would happen,
Why shouldn’t the city have to pay for the damages they caused to the cemetery through their negligence? Wouldn’t they have to pay if they, for example, damaged someone’s legally well parked car while cleaning the snow?
To #10 Start by taking pictures now in front of friends and neighbors and get a lawyer. Sue for damages and immediate repairs at their expense!!
This article doesn’t mention that there are also parked cars under that 20 foot wall of ice and snow. The city will have to pay for those as well. The city (iow, taxpayers) shouldn’t have to pay, I suggest that the money for all the repairs be taken out of the pockets of the sanitation workers and supervisors who are solely to blame for this.
Assuming that these lawsuits have any merit, the most these families can collect is the cost of repairing and/or replacing the tombstones….the deceased have no “feelings” so they cannot file for pain and suffering.