A physically revitalized Grand View Memorial Park opened its gates for the first time in six months this Memorial Day weekend and over the course of two days more than 500 carloads of visitors came to visit loved ones buried there and survey the property improvements.
"Beautiful!" "Gorgeous!" "Amazing!" were some of the most commonly expressed visitor responses upon seeing the cut, green lawns -- hydrated by a new state-of-the-art automated watering system -- trimmed towering palms and other familiar trees, as well as over 60 newly planted young trees.
The improvements are the result of normalization work funded by $500,000 in insurance monies assigned from a $3.8 million class action suit settled against the cemetery last year. The cemetery had been open on select Sundays with the help of volunteers until Dec. 5, 2010 after which work on the grounds began.
Visitors were also pleasantly surprised to find over 400 American flags placed on the graves of veterans buried at Grand View, placed by Boy Scouts from the Verdugo Hills Council on Saturday before Sunday and Monday's visitations.
The visitation days were coordinated by cemetery representatives and manned by over a dozen volunteers who also put in full days of work Friday and Saturday weed-whacking around as many markers as they could get to and cleaning the North and West Mausoleums.
Stay tuned for additional detailed stories and images from this weekend, once our volunteers get a chance to rest up and submit materials for the website.
In the meantime, mark your calendars for the next opening on Sunday, June 5th from 12-4pm.
Grand View will continue to open each Sunday (same time each week) until the sale of the cemetery is completed and the park returns to normal operations -- thanks to a commitment from volunteers who will staff the office and property.
If you'd like to become a Grand View volunteer, please contact David Baum at (310) 990-3660 for additional information.
