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Plot owners at Homestead Cemetery in near Pittsburgh showed up at the facility Wednesday evening to find one gate padlocked and closed signs.
People, including Mark Kamaus, told WPXI News that Memorial Day was the first time they heard the cemetery could be bankrupt.
“He chose where he wanted to be. He picked that spot,” Kamaus said about her son who is buried at Homestead Cemetery. “Our loved ones are in here. How can you just lock this up, you know?”
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Dixie Siegworth said she visits the cemetery weekly to visit her husband who was buried there 26 years ago, adding the padlocks won't stop her.
Like all the others in attendance Wednesday evening, she maintains the plot, cutting the grass and weeding.
Sandy Wolfe, who buried her mother nine months ago, was distraught over the entire situation.
"I can't even put a headstone on her grave. This is craziness," she said.
Two women eventually appeared on the other side of the main gate and said police allowed them in.
After the crowd gathered around the gate, a couple of dozen people broke the chain, and everyone walked inside.
"My mother was buried last year near my husband. They're not keeping me out of here. It's not right," Siegworth said. "We paid for these plots."
WPXI has learned that the cemetery, which relies solely on burials for income, is in need of more than $100,000. There have only been four burials in 2015.
It's unclear how someone who has a plot at the cemetery will be accommodated if he or she dies.
The cemetery has been working with leaders in Munhall and a historical society to come up with funding.
Munhall's mayor said the cemetery is private property, and will remain that way until a decision on how to handle the situation is reached.
Some people plan on going to the cemetery Saturday to cut the overgrown grass.
Calls to the president of the Homestead Cemetery Association were not immediately returned Wednesday evening.
An officer at the Homestead Police Department told Holden that he was unaware of any problems with people coming or going at the cemetery.
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