Cemetery is in the spotlight again over new concerns

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — One family’s complaint, Friday, about Calvary Memorial Cemetery and owner Jack Krupicka is one we’ve heard before.

“It’s frustrating, and he seems to not care about it at all,” said Courtney McNeil

WWAY has been reporting on issues at the graveyard for years. The cemetery got so many complaints, that a couple years ago state regulators had to step in and help Krupicka turn things around.

“Now in retrospect, they were absolutely right. The cemetery wasn’t looking right,” Krupicka said.

Mcneil had a new, but familiar complaint. She said she and her family were shocked when they could not find her father-in-law’s headstone during a recent visit.

“This was a military man,” McNeil said. “He served the country, you know, and his son and the rest of the family can’t even come and visit his grave, can’t bring flowers because you don’t even know where his grave is.”

But Krupicka said it’s all just a misunderstanding.

“The marker was just where it was supposed to be, but it had been covered with about a quarter of an inch of sand,” he said.

Krupicka said its all too common a problem here due to sandy soil he says quickly covers headstones after heavy rain. It’s among the many problems the owner has had to deal with the last few years, but he says with expert advice, including to change his price structure, he’s turning things around.

“I would say that over the course of the last year, we certainly spent over $20,000 fixing the cemetery up,” he said.

He said that includes new signs, cleaning up, and a full-time lawn care service, in hopes to make the cemetery last for generations to come.

Courtney McNeil and her family are still not happy about their situation and said her father-in-law’s original headstone has gone missing. Krupicka said he does not know what happened to it, but he replaced it with the current one.

The State Cemetery Commission said it has received only one complaint against Calvary Memorial since it stepped in to help two years ago.