This is an article from the local newspaper. City may purchase historic cemetery Six acres without graves would be available for business 24 January 2001 By <A HREF="mailto:kLawrence@messenger-inquirer.com">Keith Lawrence</A> Messenger-Inquirer Owensboro officials are discussing a deal that could preserve historic Greenwood Cemetery and open six acres along busy East Parrish Avenue for development.Two people who own stock in the company that developed the cemetery between Leitchfield Road and East Parrish Avenue in 1906 have filed suit in Daviess Circuit Court, seeking to have the cemetery auctioned at the courthouse door. That could come as early as late February. Attorney Russel Jones, who represents the 1,000 to 2,000 people who own the remainder of the stock, said more than 600 people are buried on five of the cemetery's 11 acres. The remaining six acres contain no graves, he said. Those six acres are along East Parrish Avenue across from Kight Home Center and are ripe for development, Jones said. He said local heirs are concerned that if the property is sold to a developer, the graves would not be maintained. The ideal solution, Jones said, would be for the city to buy the entire 11 acres and then sell the six acres along East Parrish to a developer. The money from the sale could be put into a trust fund to maintain the cemetery, he said. Jones said there is no way to estimate how much the property would bring. State law requires that the purchaser of a cemetery maintain the property forever."That restriction would significantly reduce the value of the property," he said. "But it would just be a wild guess how much someone would pay for it." City Manager Ron Payne said city officials are considering buying the land."We're checking to see if we could do that," Payne said. "The property is actually in the county. But if we buy it, we would annex it and be able to collect the taxes after it's developed."Daviess County Judge-Executive Reid Haire said the cemetery group has not approached Daviess Fiscal Court about buying the property."We've not been contacted," he said. "I'm not familiar with what's happening there."Greenwood Cemetery was last used for a burial in 1974 and had become largely abandoned by the 1980s. Tombstones were broken and hidden by tangled brush and trees that covered the property. Scrap lumber, plastic pipe and other trash also littered the cemetery. In 1996, Greenwood Cemetery Restoration Committee was formed to clean and maintain the old cemetery. It took more than 200 volunteers two years to complete the work. In January 1999, Wesley Acton and Emily Holloway were honored with the Mayor's Award for Excellence for spearheading the project."It will take money to maintain the cemetery," Jones said. "And we're concerned that a business might not want to spend the money to maintain it. The city could set the money from the sale of the six acres aside and use it for maintenance. We think that may be the best solution."Jones said Greenwood was developed by a corporation that sold 100 shares of stock. Its charter expired in 1957 and hasn't been renewed. But two people, who live out of state, now own 40 percent of the stock and want the property sold so they can get the money, he said. The remaining stock is owned by between 1,000 and 2,000 people -- only about 100 of whom have been located."It's extremely difficult to track them down," Jones said. Payne said the city is waiting to see if the judge will order the property sold before making a decision on buying it.