WRCBtv.com | Chattanooga News, Weather & SportsLaFayette Cemetery Flowers Found Dumped Behind City's Utility Building

LaFayette Cemetery Flowers Found Dumped Behind City's Utility Building

UPDATED FRIDAY NOV 20 4:52 p.m.

LaFayette, GA (WRCB) - Eyewitness News brings you the first look at just what happened to all of those flowers from the "cemetery clean-up."  We found the pile dumped behind the city's utilities building.  The flowers were mixed in with trash from the garbage truck and some still lingered in the bed of the vehicle.  They were all crushed and destroyed.

It was all hard to stomach for Robert Rowlls.

"There's somebody's trash, ma'am, mixed in with my father's flowers and other people's flower.  It's trash, threw it away like it was garbage," he told Eyewitness News.

UPDATED THURSDAY NOV 19 9:34 p.m.

LaFayette, GA (WRCB) - It was supposed to be a LaFayette City Council workshop, instead it turned into a free for all for angry residents.

"I had to fill in my father's grave with dirt from the pile because you wouldn't do it," one man shouted from the audience.

"This ain't right, not right at all," shouted a woman from her seat.

City council members nor the mayor could control the out of control crowd.

"Utterly chaotic.  Just the way I looked at it," said Gloria Russ of the meeting.

Mayor Neal Florence told the crowd the city would like to form a committee to come up with new stipulations for the city cemetery;  the current set of rules hasn't been updated in more than thirty years.

The council then voted to approve spending that would reimburse those who could present a receipt for flower purchases.  Those who didn't have receipts for recent previous purchases will be allowed to purchase more and will be reimbursed. 

That didn't do much to quiet the boisterous crowd. 

"The reimbursement will be taken out of taxpayer dollars.  We will be paying for the flowers two times," said Shirley Daniel.

UPDATE THURSDAY NOV 19

LaFayette, GA (WRCB) -- Our Jenna McKee reports the meeting Thursday night over the clearing of the cemetery got heated. Watch the emotional video on Channel-3 Eyewitness News at 11pm and on WRCBtv.com.

TUESDAY NOV 17

Lafayette, GA (WRCB-TV)  - If you visit the Lafayette City Cemetery, there's something you won't see: flowers.  Flowers and other personal items have been removed from grave sites.  City officials say it was a misunderstanding and only wilted or faded flowers were to be removed; instead every single flower was cleared out.

"Feels like they took something away from us and it's just disrespectful," said Angelia Hughes.

Phyllis Goodman talked through tears as she talked about the removal of items from her father's grave.  "I think it's a sad world that people have the right to desecrate the grave like that and I don't feel like we were given enough notice," she said.

A public notice was placed in the Walker County Messenger on Friday, but Goodman told Eyewitness News it was too small to see.

While the word has spread locally, but she worries about what those who don't live in the county will think when they visit their loved ones.

"They are going to see this and know their family graves were robbed.  That is the way I feel, like we were robbed." she said.