Editorial
EDITORIAL: Private management needed for Hempstead cemetery
Treatment of the dead is always a measure of a community's civility and values. That's why Town of Hempstead Supervisor Kate Murray acted so quickly to minimize the fallout from recent burial errors at Greenfield Cemetery in Uniondale.
Only a message from the grave can trump patronage in the Town of Hempstead.
Mistakes do happen at interments. Reports about three in one year at Greenfield, however, unearthed problems with the management of the cemetery by a Republican committeeman from Westbury, who had no prior experience in this field. Despite grumblings within the party, Murray gave a 30-day suspension without pay to Vincent Iannucci, the deputy commissioner, who earns $83,388 annually.
Murray shouldn't stop there in trying to find a better way to run the Island's only active town graveyard. She is bringing in a consultant to fix the obvious problems, but the town should seriously consider allowing a private company to take over its management.
Greenfield has a $1.8 million budget with $1.5 million spent on salaries - including not just a few party workers. No wonder the cemetery loses money. And there isn't even a computer program to keep track of who is buried, a system that should have kept coffins out of the wrong graves. Taxpayers might start to wonder why they are spending so much and getting so little for something that is so important. hN
