AUSTINTOWN — About a dozen people at Monday’s trustees meeting voiced their displeasure with the rules being imposed at the township cemeteries.

The township owns and maintains Four Mile Run Cemetery at Four Mile Run and Crum roads, Brunstetter Cemetery at Wilcox Road and Callaway Circle, and Smiths Corner Cemetery at state Route 46 and Kirk Road.

The rules were approved by all three trustees on Jan. 9, but trustees Monica Deavers and Robert Santos said they did not begin to be enforced until right after Easter. Santos said he thinks there was a miscommunication about when enforcement would start.

Several of the residents said they did not know when the rules were going to start being enforced, so they were not able to get their things off of graves before those items were thrown away by the township road department.

The regulations specify that while a resident buys the rights to a plot, the township has the right to make changes to the maintenance of the plot. The township has the right to remove anything placed on a plot that violates the following regulations:

• Individuals are not allowed to plant trees, flowers or shrubs on their plots. Any type of physical obstruction to maintenance workers such as fences or curbing also would be removed at the discretion of the township;

• If a tree or shrub standing on a lot grows out and intrudes upon walkways, the township will have the right to remove them. Individuals may place flowers in a cemetery vase at the head of the grave or attached to the headstone;

• Christmas decorations are allowed between Dec. 1 and Feb. 1, and decorations for Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Fourth of July and Veterans Day are allowed one week before the holiday but must be removed no later than one week after the holiday. The township also will build all headstones and monuments and holds two clean up days, one in March and another in October.

Deavers and Santos said the trustees should have a meeting with residents to further discuss the problems and come up with a solution. Deavers said that meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. May 9.

Rich Fink brought photos that he had taken earlier in the day of grass all over gravestones at Brunstetter Cemetery.

“That cemetery feels like death,” Fink said. “I used to drive by and see the good memories people had with their families. I don’t see that anymore.”

Santos asked what time the photos were taken. Fink said he was at the cemetery on Monday around 1:15 p.m.

“If that was done at 1:15 p.m. and it’s still like that now, that’s messed up,” Santos said.

Residents told the trustees that the landscaping they had done around the graves had been torn out, military medallions had been removed, flowers and other plants had been ripped out of the ground and family mementos had been thrown away.

Without landscaping around the graves, several residents were concerned that the mowers would hit the gravestones. Fink said when he was in the cemetery, he saw several lopsided gravestones that looked like they had been hit. He said a few had even been chipped.

“On March 21, I wrote a letter to all three trustees and our administrator/road superintendent. And I want to personally thank Trustee Santos and Trustee Deavers for reaching out to me and listening to my concerns,” Lorraine Reynolds Federovitch said. “Trustee (Steve) Kent and Administrator (Michael) Dockry, I say this to you: shame on you. Shame on both of you. You are hired and elected to represent Austintown Township in a professional manner and you both have failed the Austintown residents.”

She said that instead of mailing a notice of the rule change to those who have plots in the cemetery, the township put a plastic zippered bag with papers in it on some of the graves. She said a simple apology at this point will not be good enough. Federovitch gave the trustees a form signed by 25 residents with suggested rule changes.

Some of these rule changes include that things people have already put at graves should be grandfathered into the new rules as long as they are maintained, residents can put a 2- to 3-foot paving or edging border in front of or behind the headstone, graves can be decorated on Memorial Day in addition to the other enumerated holidays, veterans medallions can stand alone and veterans’ graves can be decorated with the American flag all year.

Later in the meeting, Robert Sutton stood up from the audience and made a motion to accept all the rules in the petition. When he asked for those in favor, most of the audience said “aye.” Zoning Inspector Darren Crivelli said the motion was not valid, because only trustees can approve items.

Kent made a motion to stop removing items from graves until after the public meeting on the topic is held. It passed unanimously.

ABC MEETING

Also during the trustees meeting, Deavers announced that the Mahoning County commissioners had agreed to pay $348,000 in American Rescue Plan funds toward three culvert replacements in the township. Santos said he also helped ask the commissioners for the funds.

The township got 10 bids for the project. The lowest came in at $328,150 from Z-Tech Builders and Excavators of Canfield and the highest came in at $426,775 from David Richie of Mineral Ridge. Dockry said he will make a recommendation for the trustees to approve at their next regular meeting.

Santos said the township has asked state Rep. Al Catrona, R-Canfield, for money from the state operating budget, but is waiting to hear back.

Several weeks ago, the discussion about the culvert replacements led the trustees to call a meeting, which is set for 6 p.m. today at Austintown Middle School, to discuss the possibility of adding a fee for residents for the ABC Water and Storm Water District

Staff writer Mason Cole contributed to this report

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