To the editor:

We thank all of those who have been working on the Memorial Park Cemetery situation. There have been many upset families. What occurred this week with the city taking it over is the start of something better for these families and future Lawrence generations.

Although it occurred as a result of a court order, Mike Wildgen and his staff and the city commissioners have been quietly listening to the voiced problems and educating themselves to the eventual solutions that might be presented to them. We encourage lot owners and future lot owners to be patient with them as they work with the attorney general’s office for potential financial remedy on paid markers and burial vaults. The city, of course, cannot replace all those items, but they are working diligently for more information about where the required trusted monies may be.

We are proud that we live in a city and state that does not put up with this kind of operation. Special thanks to the Kansas Attorney General’s Office, the Secretary of State’s staff, our city management team, the Oak Hill Cemetery staff and Nina Bair and all of the other families that cared enough to not accept this sad state of affairs.

We think that this quote from Sir William Gladstone says something about our community, “Show me the manner in which a nation or community cares for it dead, and I will measure with mathematical exactness the tender sympathies of its people, their respect for the law of the land and their loyalty to high ideals.”

Larry K. McElwain, Philip F. Padden and the Warren-McElwain staff,

Lawrence