BARTLETT, Tenn. — Frank Colvett oversees landscape maintenance for Galilee Memorial Gardens, a Bartlett cemetery which has been the subject of complaints.
"My heart goes out to those families. The history of Galilee cemetery is disgusting," Colvett said.
This past Mother's Day, dozens of families from across the area came to the cemetery to pay their respects to their moms. But when they arrived, they were greeted by tall grass and unkept grounds.
Colvett said while he is not the owner of the property, he was contracted by the state of Tennessee to maintain Galilee Memorial Gardens. He also said that the cost to maintain the property has gone down dramatically from last year to this year, affecting his ability to effectively maintain this cemetery.
Colvett said that when the property was seized by the state of Tennessee 10 years ago, the state also seized the cemetery's bank account, which provides funding for maintenance.
According to a court order, Colvett is only allowed access to the money generated by the account's investments, which varies each year.
"That means we can only spend the interest in the dividends that the money makes in the market," Colvett said. "Last year, it was plenty. We cut the grass, I think, every 14 days. Now because of dividends, we can only cut the grass six or seven times this year."
Colvett said he is working on additional ways to keep Galilee clean and maintained.
"We’ve tried to squeeze our contractors down as hard as we can to get the number of cuts up, but you had unfortunately what we had over Mother’s Day weekend, where the place was not properly kept up," Colvett said.
Colvett said if you know a lawn maintenance service that would like to help when the state's money is not enough, you can reach out to him. You can find his contact information HERE.