I need your help and support...Please show them that you care. The Middletown Cemetery Committee will be meeting with the City of Middletown next Wednesday at 2 p.m. to discuss ways to secure the Middletown Cemetery and stop the damage. If you have family members buried in the Middletown Cemetery or are concerned about the damage that is occurring in these historical cemeteries please email the City of Middletown this weekend and let them know. Bill Becker, City Manager http://www.ci.middletown.oh.us/apps/contact/contact.asp?id=11 Noah Powers, Mayor http://www.ci.middletown.oh.us/apps/contact/contact.asp?id=3 Thank you Vivian Combs Moon Middletown Cemetery Committee March 5, 2005 Middletown Journal, Middletown, Ohio Monuments at local cemetery vandalized By Lauren Pack Vandals periodically strike in the downtown Middletown cemetery filled with the city’s founders and forefathers, but those trying to restore the cemetery say the damage is becoming more frequent and costly. “When I came out here and saw this, I just about cried,” said Vivian Moon Friday as she surveyed the toppled tombstones at Middletown Historical Pioneer Cemetery on First Avenue. Eight large stones, some dating to the early 1900s, were ripped from their pedestals and laying in the grass. One had been spray-painted. Moon is a member of the Middletown Cemetery Committee formed to clean up and restore the downtown cemetery, where 7,000 people are buried, 233 of them veterans. Moon has been photographing stones for a database that is being established at the Middletown Historical District (should be Society) to account for who, and exactly how many, people were buried in the cemetery. “So I come out here often,” she said, estimating the latest vandalism occurred in the past two weeks. This spring the committee plans to landscape the cemetery and rehab the older stones. Moon said the committee has applied for a grant to fund the project and is planning a fund-raiser soon. “But if we can’t secure it, I don’t see how we can restore it,” Moon said. A couple years ago, multiple stones were vandalized by juveniles who eventually were charged by Middletown police. Because the cemetery is dark, surrounded by businesses that close at night and full of large monuments that can be uses as hiding spots, it is often the site of criminal activity, including a murder and robbery a few years ago, Sgt. Jim Cunningham said. Moon and Cunningham said juveniles use the cemetery as a shortcut after school and adults cut through at night going to and from downtown establishments. None of them are using the front gate; most are gaining access through holes in the fence that is in ill repair, Moon and Cunningham said. Cunningham said officers often patrol the cemetery but can’t be near the site all the time. “We are working with her (Moon) to address the security,” Cunningham said. “To develop an environmental design to help the problem.” Moon said she wants residents of the area to be vigilant and call police when they see suspicious activity. “This has gotten beyond a Halloween prank,” she said. “It is costing thousands of dollars several times a year. It needs to stop.”