AVON, Ohio — Families in Northeast Ohio are fighting against want they call disrespectful local cemetery conditions and are hoping a new Ohio law will improve cemeteries across the state, but so far they believe it's not being enforced nearly enough.
HB 168 passed in October 2018, and calls for more stringent "reasonable maintenance" at 4,100 cemeteries statewide, after growing complaints were sent into Ohio's Cemetery Dispute Resolution Commission.
But Mary Smelcer said the new law hasn't had an impact on what she called swampy conditions at Resthaven Memorial Gardens in Avon, where her husband was buried in Aug. 2018.
Smelcer showed News 5 photographs from a Valentine's Day visit to her husband's grave site.
The pictures showed several graves submerged under water, a problem Smelcer first reported in November.
Smelcer has since filed a lawsuit against Resthaven, hoping to move her husband's body to another cemetery.
"It's been hard, it's been really hard," Smelcer said.
"Feel like my heart got ripped out all over again, all over again," she said.
"All that water standing, the headstone next to my husband was actually bubbling with water."
Smelcer's daughter, Brenda Pettry, said she believes the cemetery commission needs more inspectors to visit local cemeteries when it receives complaints.
"I just know that I want the closure that everyone gets when they put their loved one to rest," Pettry said.
"The state needs to back-up what they put in place, they need to check in with the cemeteries and make sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing."
News 5 contacted Resthaven Memory Gardens parent company StoneMor Partners LP about condition complaints at the cemetery, but the company had no comment.
News 5 also contacted the cemetery commission, through the Ohio Department of Commerce, about enforcement concerns, and it said it would look into where it stands with complaints filed against Resthaven.
RELATED: Families are calling for more cemetery oversight after experiencing issues at local funeral home
