Grand View Gets Another Council Repreive**
Glendale City Council voted unanimously tonight to continue the twice-a-month visiting hours they've been running at Grand View Memorial Park, and are allocating $107,800 to conduct a one-time clean-up of dead or dying trees -- a liability risk as accidents waiting to happen, and a fire hazard in this weather.
They'll also fork out another $79,800 for staffing to operate the visiting hours for one year.
It wasn't an easy decision -- an estimate from a trusted company doing the trimming and tree removal came back $250,000, much more than the city was prepare to spend. But the council asked city arborists to take a second look and find a way to stay within budget.
No doubt the suggestion by attorney Paul Ayers that the city can recoup some of the costs through their court eventual court settlement also helped grease their wheels. Ayers represents Grand View Memorial Park families who are preparing a class action against the troubled cemetery's owners.
The next regularly scheduled opening is two weeks from Sunday. More story to come in the A.M...
*Update 8:28 a.m. -- here it is.
**Update 4 p.m. -- My colleague in Grand View, Lisa Burks of valleynews.com has this write-up of the meeting.