Funeral home owners cautioned against leaving bodies at Le Repentir

May 25, 2009 News

There is currently no place at the Le Repentir Cemetery to store decomposed bodies therefore the owners of funeral service entities must desist from leaving bodies there.
Councillor Ranwell Jordan had cause recently to make this announcement even as he pointed out that for some reason some funeral home owners continue to leave bodies at a facility of the municipality, a situation which not only affects workers but also presence a health hazards as dogs are allowed to violate the corps.
“I am appealing to funeral home owners to desist this practice until we can assist them with a holding area,” Jordan warned.

Deputy Mayor Robert Williams (standing) and other officials during the public forum

According to Deputy Mayor, Robert Williams, a brand new holding room was some time ago constructed for the purpose of assisting with the holding of corpse but noted that the building, which was already equipped with cold storage, was vandalised.
But according to a representative of the Lyken funeral, which is contracted by the Guyana Police Force to pick up bodies which result from criminal activities, or those that have been unidentified, the entity is often overwhelmed with a number of decomposing bodies.
As a result, the representative said that assistance is sought from the Mayor and City Council to make use of the holding building at Princes Street.
The concerns of the funeral service representatives came during a public forum at City Hall last week which was intended to chart the way forward with regards to the restoration of the cemetery. And they are of the belief that they have suffered the most as a result of the deterioration of the burial site.
After the meeting ended, an Advisory Committee was formulated which was the main driving force behind a decision to commence rehabilitative works at the cemetery this week.
And the plan to restore the facility is extremely crucial, according to the representatives of funeral service entities.
At the public meeting it was highlighted by the representatives of both the Sandy’s and Lyken funeral homes that among the challenges they face is the constant ‘drilling’ they have to endure from customers about the cost of a burial plot.
It was revealed that it was just a few short years ago that the cost for a plot was $4,780 but today amounts to $17,000.
This cost, it was noted, is doubled if municipal workers have to work on a plot at weekend or on a holiday.
As a result, customers often become disheartened and do not fail to express anger at the funeral homes rather than the municipality, which is the entity to which the money is actually paid.
At the public meeting, the representatives questioned what the money was going towards as there is evidence to suggest that the cemetery has been left to deteriorate.
The Deputy Mayor responded by stating that the cemetery is operating with a $20 M deficit.
He disclosed that although $32 M is budgeted for the maintenance of the cemetery the municipality is barely able to earn a mere $11 M by virtue of burial costs, thus monies from other programmes have to be plugged into the cemetery to aid its continued operation.
However, it was noted that the proposed works on the burial ground will be funded by the $10 M which government has promised to pay to the municipality on a monthly basis for a year.