Neighbors urge upkeep of overgrown La Port cemetery

LA PORTE, TX (KTRK) -- A final resting place for dozens of people in La Porte is overgrown and people in the area want it cleaned up.

They're concerned about the state of the graves in the century-old La Porte Cemetery, located at W. L St. and 8th.

The names and lives of mothers, fathers and even young children are overshadowed by overgrown grass, and century old graves are buried below weeds so tall you'd never notice they're even there.

"I would not want to be in this situation that's for sure," Clay Morris said. He walks by the cemetery every week, where currently only a few graves are well maintained.

"I'm sure there's soldiers out here, that fought for us. And they're not being taken care of? That's ridiculous. Somebody needs to look out for everybody out here, soldier or not," he said.

Broken headstones that once belonged to somebody sit in a forgotten pile by a shed in the back. The state of the cemetery is so upsetting to Morris that he's organizing volunteers to mow the grass.

"Because they deserve respect. I would want someone to take care of me."

"It's rained enough in the past couple of weeks that we have not been able to mow the grass," La Porte Cemetery Association President Ken Adams said.

The lawn was last cut three-and-a-half weeks ago and the association is trying to dispose of the old head stones, he said.

"There are a couple of them that somebody moved the person that was in the cemetery and didn't want to take the headstone with them." It's been a challenge to dispose of them because grinding them up is costly and no landfill will take them, Adams added.

Because it's an association, when a family purchases a plot, Adams says it's up to them to maintain it.

"Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen and can't always happen because families move away and things like that. So we take over the responsibility for doing that for them."

Crews mowed part of the cemetery Tuesday afternoon, which Adams said was previously scheduled, but Eyewitness News wasn't able to reach him late in the day to find out if crews will be back to finish the rest. He told us earlier they don't have a set schedule for mowing. They do it as needed once the property dries out after it rains.