Spirit guide fights for cemetery maintenance.

By Jim Haug
Business Writer

Last update: November 06, 2005

DAYTONA BEACH -- Somebody has been leaving bags of dead chickens and coconuts at Mount Arrarat Cemetery.

Volunteers who look after the crumbling crypts and prickly weed-infested graveyard near the intersection of Bellevue Avenue and Clyde Morris Boulevard believe it's a voodoo-style way
of contacting a deceased ancestor. Their curiosity inspired a little research into voodoo practices.

Disposing of the remnants of animal sacrifice is just one of the responsibilities of the International Association of Cemetery Preservationists, which, despite its far-reaching name,
is mostly a local group. The group also mends broken headstones, tidies up after trespassers, alerts police to late-night troublemakers and pricks the community's conscience about its responsibilities toward its cemeteries. "Benjamin Franklin said you can tell the morals of a culture by the way it takes care of its dead," said Dusty Smith, founder and president of the group.

While many community groups like the Boy Scouts look after abandoned cemeteries, Smith's group has become politically active, lobbying local officials for new cemetery lights, fences and no-trespassing signs.

Smith felt compelled to do something after driving by Gethsemane Cemetery on Orchard Street in Ormond Beach seven year ago. The grass there was waist-high.

"I thought, 'Oh my gosh, this is insane!' " she said.

As a ghost tour leader, scary-tale publisher and a haunted-house investigator, Smith owes her livelihood to those who have passed on. It was time to give something back, she said.

The International Association of Cemetery Preservationists was formed. While it takes care of three local graveyards, including Saints and Sinners in Oak Hill, in addition to Mount Arrarat and Gethsemane, it's considered international because of a member from Spain. The group has about 50 members.

Smith uses her status to leverage volunteer labor and donations. Anyone who wants to join her on ghost-hunting expeditions must also commit to cemetery cleanup.

"My guidelines are pretty strict," Smith said. "If they miss three cemetery cleanups, they are cut (from the Daytona Beach Paranormal Research Group Inc.)."

But anyone who wants to see a ghost might want to join the cleanup crew. Smith and volunteers say they have seen an apparition of a "gray lady" floating back and forth between the cedars of Mount Arrarat. During their vigils against trespassers, cemetery volunteers say, they sometimes smell bologna and beer and hear piano jazz and horse-drawn carriages.

They believe they might be experiencing indications of another dimension, but they also admit that late-night gate crashers use Mount Arrarat like a cheap motel room, as evidenced by strewn food and condom wrappers.

"At least they're practicing safe sex, but I don't want to clean up the aftermath," Smith said.

The fact that Mount Arrarat is the final resting place for 168 veterans -- as indicated by the flags planted there every Memorial Day -- raises Smith's sense of indignation.

The cemetery preservationists have gotten political. Smith regularly calls on the police to take a harder line against trespassers and county officials to do more for cemeteries.

Some volunteers have camped outside the office of Mayor Yvonne Scarlett-Golden to plead on behalf of Mount Arrarat. The mayor's parents and two daughters are buried there.

"People single me out because I'm the mayor, but a lot of community leaders have family members buried there," Scarlett-Golden said.

Mount Arrarat has traditionally been a black cemetery since the days of segregation.

The mayor agrees that more needs to be done but she has been busy with the election, in which she faces former City Commissioner Mike Shallow on Tuesday. She would like to appoint a coordinator who could apply for grants on behalf of abandoned and neglected cemeteries.

But there's only so much she can do as a mayor, Scarlett-Golden said. According to Smith, Mount Arrarat is in the private control of two shareholders, the Rev. Gussie Sampson of Daytona Beach and Dr. Astrid Mack, a physician in Miami. They didn't respond to requests for interviews.

But Smith said she has gotten their permission to look after Mount Arrarat. She wishes they did more to collect burial and maintenance fees from funeral homes, who often represent the families of the deceased.

She has told the owners, "These people owe you a ton of money. You could get this place cleaned up in a few months."

Alexander Wynn, owner of Gainous-Wynn Funeral Home, said he has documentation to show he has been forwarding burial fees to Mount Arrarat. He said a grave space at Mount Arrarat costs about $125, which is far cheaper than the $1,000-plus that most cemeteries command.

For liability reasons, he said his funeral home is getting away from collecting burial fees. "We're the funeral home, not the cemetery."

Because they're constrained by their budgets, county and state officials encourage the efforts of cemetery volunteers.

Money has always been the issue. A few years ago, the state commissioned a cemetery task force.

"Somebody asked. 'How can we get money for abandoned and neglected cemeteries when we don't have money for abandoned and neglected children?' " said Diana Evans, the state director for Funeral Homes, Cemeteries and Consumer Services.

"That put everything into perspective," she said.

Florida has about 4,000 cemeteries. State law allows local governments to use public monies for cemetery maintenance, but it doesn't obligate them, Evans said.

Volusia County maintains the grass in 16 cemeteries, both in cities and unincorporated areas. It cuts grass four times a year. Flagler County has no such program.

It's all Volusia County can afford, said Dave Byron, a county spokesman. The goal is to make it presentable.

"We don't maintain it like your front yard, that's for sure."