Black group fights bid to relocate cemetery

1987-11-02

Black group fights bid to relocate cemetery
Pyramid firm negotiating in efforts to move graves
By Pati Nash
Staff Writer

Photo by Kathy Gardner
Elliot Sisco, a director of the Mount Moor Cemetery Association, and wife, Nolie, at site of cemetery in West Nyack.

In 1849 a one-acre mound on the old Dexter property in West Nyack was designated for burial of "colored" Rockland soldiers and residents.
An unknown number of black soldiers who died fighting in the Civil and Spanish-American wars were laid to rest on the property — now between Route 59 and the state Thruway —along with other local blacks, who were not accepted at many of the county's segregated cemeteries.
In 1985, the Syracuse-based Pyramid Companies purchased 89.5 acres of the Dexter property in hope of building a
major shopping center.
The company originally assured the Mount Moor Cemetery Association, which has owned the property since 1940, that it would fence off the cemetery, clean it up, and leave it alone.
But other problems at the site have prompted representatives of the company to begin negotiations with the cemetery association to relocate the graves — contacting relatives of those buried and seeking permission. Members of the cemetery's board and state officials say the developers will not
have an easy time.
Elliot Sisco, a director of the association, said a purchase price for land was not discussed at a meeting last week with association members and a partner in the development company, although the firm did offer to move the graves to another cemetery on Route 59 and set aside $100,000 to maintain them.
But so far, the association's members are not overwhelmed by the offer. "It would upset a number of people," said cemetery board president Hezekiah Easter. "There are alot of emotional ties."
"It's not a matter of money," said Easter, who helped to bury his
brother there more than half a century ago. "It's a matter of
principle."
When Sisco was a small boy his father would give him a ride in a wheelbarrow to tend the grave of his brother and place a flag on the grave of his grandfather, who died fighting in the Civil War.
Sisco, Easter, Georgiana Dennis and Thomas V. Thompson head the cemetery association.
Sisco said he will try to keep his relatives where they are "if it's
possible. I am speaking as an individual, not for the association. But I know there are more people who
feel the same way."
The assistant director of the New York State Division of
Cemeteries said a relative can object to having deceased relatives relocated.
"No one can move Aunt Mary if they don't want her moved," said Jack Schekira, who added that state law requires the developers do an "exhaustive search" for the next of kin before the state Supreme Court would allow a grave to be moved.
The sparse records of the dead at Mount Moor also may be a
problem. Many of the graves do not have tombstones, and records of the number of people buried were not kept. "The cemetery was run on a handshake basis," said Schekira.
If no records exist, the developers must hire a genealogist to
track down relatives from the information on the tombstones.
Besides the approval of relatives who can be traced, the developer would need approval from the four trustees of the association, as owners of the land, said Schekira.
Thomas Valenti, a partner in the proposed shopping mall, said it was not known yet whether the acre involved would be needed to build the planned four department stores, community center, parking lots and access roads.
But with two former landfills and a granite mountain also on the
site, relocating the cemetery would give designers a little more leeway.
"If the cemetery stays, quite frankly, we would have a difficult
time designing that shopping center," said Valenti.
Valenti would not discuss the details of his negotiations with the association, saying that "Right now, it is still a private matter and in negotiations."
The company does not expect to complete plans on the design of the center until until the next vote on the requested zoning change. The Clarkstown Town Board refused to change the property's zoning from light industrial to regional shopping
by a 4 to 1 vote in May of 1986.
Easter admitted that the association has had trouble keeping the cemetery from looking abandoned. Under state law, a cemetery can be declared abandoned and be taken over by the town if no one has been buried at the site in the past 20 years.
But in 1980, a 5-year-old girl from Nyack. was put to rest on
Mount Moor.

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