Cemetery caretaker will wait for agreement before filing lawsuit

scottw@standard-democrat.com

CHARLESTON -- Now that officials have determined who owns the farmland next to a cemetery, they believe they can get a conflict resolved by talking things out.

Harry Ishmael of Fruitland said during Thursday's regular Mississippi County Commission meeting that he is willing to wait for that conversation to happen but if it doesn't stop the damage to the Pinhook Cemetery, his next step is a lawsuit.

Ishmael has been mowing the cemetery, located at the corner of County Roads 514 and 513 about six miles southeast of the East Prairie city limits in Pinhook, for 22 years. The cemetery has about 20-25 graves, six of which are Ishmael's family members.

"I have some pictures," Ishmael said, including one which shows "two stones they moved where a pivot went through with a wheel."

The irrigation pivot no longer goes across the graveyard, he said, but other farm equipment has been running across the ground recently and leaving ruts.

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