Nov 18, 2009 5:52 pm US/Central
Burr Oak Cemetery To Reopen On Limited Basis
Loved Ones May Take Buses To Visit Graves
ALSIP, Ill. (CBS) ―
July to November is a long time to wait, but starting Thursday friends and family members will be able to visit their loved ones' gravesite at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip.
Since a grave-reselling scandal broke over the summer, Burr Oak has looked more like a crime scene than a cemetery.
But on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 2 p.m., officials will hold a news conference and tour for the reopening.
Beginning Thursday through Wednesday of next week, there will be limited visitation hours from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Visitors need a ticket to get in; it's a printout of the grave you're looking for from the
Burr Oak website. You also can get it at the Burr Oak transportation center in the middle of the Plaza Del Mar strip mall at 123rd Street and Cicero Avenue.
Buses there will take you to the Cemetery.
CBS 2's Pamela Jones took the trip Wednesday with photographer Morris Jones Jr., whose mom and dad are buried there.
"We left an American flag here and there he is. Morris V. Jones," he said. "It's still intact. God bless you dad."
The younger Jones visited his father's grave for the first time after months of wondering how he would find it. He found his mother's burial site intact, too.
"She's still there. Thank God. I'm so happy," he said.
It's the kind of ending officials at Burr Oak Cemetery said they want for all the families with loved ones buried here.
They've opened a resource center near 123rd and Cicero to help those families find gravesites. They've set up computers logged on to the Burr Oak website and a search engine where people can find each grave.
It's information compiled from cemetery and Cook County Sheriff's records and officials said it's pretty effective.
Roman Szabelski, who was named the receiver of Burr Oak Cemetery, said, "We are as good as the source documents are. If something is askew, then it's going to be askew until we meet with and talk with the family."
From the resource center, loved ones will be able to board buses to what we're told is a better Burr Oak. Officials said that about $150,000 has been invested in repairs to the gate and fences, roads and sewers.
People will find maps everywhere to direct them, plus stakes to mark the lots.
Some 140,000 burials have taken place here, with just 43,000 headstones to mark them. So for some families, the work is just beginning.
But for those who find closure here, the effort is more than worth it.
The cemetery has different sections scheduled for visitation on different days.
You can find a schedule here.
The cemetery promises a better Burr Oak with markers and maps placed to give people better directions.
Burr Oak was the site of an alleged burial scam that was uncovered over the summer.
Four former workers – office manager Carolyn Towns, 49, and gravediggers Maurice Dailey, 69, Keith Nicks, 45, and Terrence Nicks, 39, all face multiple felony charges in connection with the alleged plot, which is believed to have netted $300,000.
They are accused of digging up bodies and dumping them behind the Alsip cemetery, and jamming caskets on top of each other in an effort to resell graves already in use.
Burr Oak was shut down for months,
but the cemetery's court-appointed administrator says more than 20 people have been buried at the cemetery since October.
The Sun-Times Media Wire contributed to this report.
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