Sprucing up cemeteries for Memorial Day kept local groundskeepers hopping last weekend. But, increasingly, mowing acres of grass, pulling weeds or tuning up sprinkler systems is becoming secondary to the problems of funding shortages and vandalism.

“It’s hard to keep things nice up here with people tagging the walls,” said Harold Galloway, a sexton with the Tooele City Cemetery.

According to Galloway, vandalism, though not as big a problem for local cemeteries as those in larger communities, is a growing issue. Vandals turn over headstones, tag flat surfaces, or steal objects. It’s hard for police to catch the perpetrators since most of the crimes occur at night with no witnesses nearby. Even Tooele cemetery’s new monument to the unborn, which was dedicated on May 20, has already been a target. Vandals stole lights from the monument before it turned a week old.

Similar acts of vandalism are costing Grantsville City funds better spent on cemetery upkeep and repairs, according to Grantsville public works director Joel Kertamus.

“It costs all the taxpayers for what they [the vandals] consider to be a night of fun,” Kertamus said.

Grantsville’s already-tight budget has been taxed further by the unexpected costs of cleaning up after vandals, making repairs even more difficult to fund, according to Kertamus. He would like to replace an old, inefficient sprinkler system and re-pave a dilapidated road on the Grantsville City cemetery grounds. But the current budget only pays for basic repairs and two groundskeepers.

Tooele’s cemetery, which typically hires five or six groundskeepers, has an even longer to-do list: re-paving all the cemetery roads, replacing a damaged fence, replacing a faulty sewer line, and possibly even expanding the cemetery, which Galloway said is rapidly running out of space.

“The fence is all bent up and out of shape, there’s no room for a drainage field, and we’re not hooked up to the city sewer,” he said. “I don’t know how many grave sites are left open, but it’s not a high number.”

Galloway said he often feels the cemetery’s needs are ignored by city leaders.

“We’re important up until Memorial Day, then they forget about us,” he said. “Or at least that’s how we feel sometimes.”

Galloway is also worried any future funding cuts will only exacerbate the problem of keeping up the cemetery.

Galloway and Kertamus suggested residents who visit graves on Memorial Day remove any flowers or vases they leave there within a week, since cleaning up after the holiday is typically a massive task for groundskeepers.

“We’d just like all the residents to be watchful and mindful,” Kertamus said. “We want to keep it looking as nice as we can with the resources we have.”