Two local vets protect Fir Hill Cemetery from vandals, other intruders

By Garth Guibord

The Sandy Post, Jan 26, 2010, Updated Jan 26, 2010 (1 Reader comment)

Garth Guibord / Sandy Post

Allen Anderson of Sandy examines a damaged headstone at Fir Hill Cemetery on Highway 26.

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Allen Anderson and Al Gagnon stand watch over a hallowed square of Sandy. The two Navy veterans arrive around 10 a.m. at Fir Hill Cemetery, on Highway 26 next to Safeway, and there they wait for teenagers, residents and others who have damaged the grounds.

One morning, the pair counted 35 people cutting through the cemetery and using a hole in a fence to get from Sandy High School and other areas east of the cemetery to the neighboring grocery store and nearby fast-food restaurants.

“It’s really bad, it’s degrading,” Anderson said, referring to the trash he finds and the people who walk across the graves. “These are pioneers; these are our heritage.”

The most evident mark left by these interlopers is a worn path from where the private road in the cemetery turns to the hole in the fence. The path traverses markers and burial plots, and according to Anderson, two headstones that were previously in the path have been moved.

The Sandy Cemetery Association, a non-profit organization, owns the cemetery. Ken Halgren, secretary for the association and owner of Sandy Funeral Home, reported this type of behavior has been going on since Safeway and the other stores arrived. A fence was installed to prevent people from walking through the cemetery, but it was cut or pushed down.

Halgren said the fence was rebuilt “I don’t know how many times,” but vandals kept taking it down.

“It’s just been a tough thing,” Halgren said. “For some reason, people won’t take the sidewalks.”

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