City upgrading security at Old Lorimier Cemetery

Cape Girardeau is upgrading security at Old Lorimier cemetery in an effort to deter vandals.

The city hired H&R Alarms Inc. to install a $4,000 motion-activated security system around the cemetery's fences. If the alarm is tripped, an alert will be sent to the police department and the alarm company simultaneously.

Brock Davis of the Cape Girardeau parks and recreation department said he hopes the work will be complete this week.

Davis anticipates other work around the cemetery as well. He said AmerenUE has pledged to install brighter lighting. Ameren officials did not return phone calls requesting comment on the scope of the project.

Terrell Weaver, the city sexton who oversees burials and maintenance at Old Lorimier, New Lorimier and Fairmount cemeteries in Cape Girardeau, said he is encouraged by the change.

"This will hopefully make it a less popular place to be at night," he said.

Vandalism in recent years has occurred three or four times per year, he said. The fence surrounding the cemetery was installed in 1992. Prior to that, vandalism was an almost weekly occurrence with two or three major acts of vandalism each year.

"Back then there was a lot of vandalism, I mean a lot," he said.

Vandalism decreased after the fence, but has not gone away. In 2005, dozens of headstones were knocked over, and, in another event, a vandal knocked over the fence to gain entrance.

But no alarm system can deter vandals who operate during the day. Old Lorimier is open to the public from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., during which time there is often no one on the grounds.

Weaver said he sometimes comes back in the afternoon to find graves freshly broken.

"I've been over there working and noticed fresh breaks. Because when they fall down on grass, the grass underneath turns brown and with these the grass was still green, so I knew it happened recently," he said.

Davis hopes getting the word out will be the best deterrent.

"They've got to be a lot braver now to do anything, but I'm sure at some point in time someone is going to try it again," he said.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245