Wednesday morning as Tyler Fatzinger and I met WFMZ deep inside Fairview Cemetery, the cemetery operator came racing up to inform us that we were all trespassing and needed to leave. I credit the reporter, Kalista Mitrisin, with persuading the operator, David Boyko, with allowing the WFMZ segment to be filmed.
While Tyler may have been influenced by early posts on this blog about Fairview, his Facebook group, Revive Fairview Cemetery Allentown, attracted the reporter and current interest.
Boyko describes himself as a savior of the cemetery, battling distractors like Fatzinger. In reality, without the early efforts of myself and the current attention by Fatzinger, the cemetery would be much more neglected. While Boyko claims that he welcomes volunteers, in reality he has been an obstacle to such efforts. The location of current burials is an issue beyond my pay grade, but warrants scrutiny by appropriate officials. Questions and comments can also be placed at the Revive Fairview page.
In the WFMZ article, it states
ReplyDelete"There's an individual that has weaponized the city's SWEEP rules to see that the cemetery gets fined for tall grass, weeds, and that’s not what we want," explains Boyko.
A few questions/comments:
1) Is Boyko referring to Tyler Fatzinger?
2). I get that Boyko doesn’t want fines, but I have to wonder what he thinks the city’s SWEEP rules are for. If he doesn’t like getting fined, then cleanup your cemetery!
Also from the WFMZ article:
ReplyDelete“And then there were the other people just trying to cause problems," he added.
That's where some of this controversy comes in.
"I've been given a cease and desist order, so I cannot cut, weed whack, alter stones in any way," explains Fatzinger.
Boyko says the cease and desist was brought on by Fatzinger was responsible for several violations of the cemetery, including tombstones that had been moved.
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More questions/comments:
1) Is Fatzinger moving tombstones? If so, I can understand Boyko’s concern. If they fall on someone, the cemetery is going to get sued. While I understand people wanting to move fallen headstones back to their original position, that’s a job for a professional. And sometimes, there are situations (like recurring vandalism) that make it better for the fallen tombstones to remain on the ground.
2). While I can possibly understand Boyko’s concern about outsiders handling tombstones, I don’t get why he’d slap a cease-and-desist order on ANYONE willing to help with things like mowing or weed-whacking. Many cemeteries have volunteers that help with such tasks, and stopping someone from doing that makes me think that Boyko isn’t really as concerned about the basic upkeep of the cemetery as he should be. That’s why he apparently NEEDS the extra motivation of the SWEEP fines.
3). Does the cemetery association file any financial reports with the state or federal government? These are usually non profit organizations and their financial reports should be accessible to the public. I’d be very curious as to what the financial picture of the cemetery is and what Boyko is being paid (if anything).
I do not understand the resistance of the administrators of Fairview cemetary to people who, at no cost to Fairview, volunteer their own efforts and time to clean up the cemetary and restore it to a presentable condition.
ReplyDeleteBoyco has no care for the cemetary period
Deleteanon@12:13: Yes, Boyko was referring to Fatzinger
ReplyDeleteanon@12:38: No, Fatzinger does NOT move stones, but has publicized poor conditions there.
anon@5:34: Boyko is a one man band. He generally does NOT allow any volunteers. He conducts current burials, mostly Hispanic, on plots that were meant as common ground, or actually previously owned old family plots. That legality is beyond my paygrade,.However, If he would cooperate, volunteer groups could be formed to improve conditions there.
In 2019 stones that were originally above ground were raised so the volunteers didn't run them over and damage equipment and stones. These were stones that were approximately 10lbs for orphans of good shepherd that died, or for infants who's familys had no money.
ReplyDeleteI just don’t understand how hard it is for him to keep uk with the grave yard. He can even get an automatic mower that does it in its own, it comes down to where he is a POS and only out for the all mighty dollar.
ReplyDeleteBoyko is a problem. He eels out a little living by selling previously owned plots to Hispanics in a pinch. This might be seen as something honorable but not the way he’s doing it. The families who bought plots a hundred years ago expected perpetual care but that depended on the cemetery association and proper management. Unfortunately the prime cemetery of Allentown, overlooking the city, has been permanently altered by Boyko. Many of the families buried there were the business, government, and social leaders of the city, who formed the city. Can’t the historical society get involved? A designated historic walk could tell a great story of the people interred there. Instead it’s history permanently lost by moving stones. Does Boyko think he could sell prime view real estate for redevelopment?
ReplyDelete