20-05-2025
Winds hinder cemetery Memorial Day preps
SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO) — Our blustery, wet weather is creating challenges at some cemeteries in KELOLAND that are preparing for the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Sioux Falls' oldest cemetery is picking up branches that have been knocked down by the strong winds.
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The week prior to Memorial Day is always a busy time at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
'Memorial Day weekend coming up is our Super Bowl here in cemetery-land,' Mount Pleasant Cemetery Executive Director Matt Gage said
But the windy weather has forced Mount Pleasant to play catch up with some emergency landscaping.
'It's been a hard spring for us, Perry. This morning, we're dealing with tree branches everywhere from the winds last night. We're dealing with downed trees in the backgrounds,' Gage said.
Gage says he'll have to cut down this tree was was split open by the wind. Placing flowers at the grave sites will have to wait until Tuesday, at the earliest.
'I have volunteers coming out to start on that tomorrow, even if I gotta put them in ponchos,' Gage said.
The cemetery has ordered 93 memorial planters from Oakridge Nursery & Landscaping in Brandon.
'The annual planters we have were started usually around the end of March, first of April. We grow them in our greenhouses until they're ready to go outside. They'll come pick them up right before Memorial Day,' Oakridge Nursery & Landscaping Owner Daemon Coughlin said.
Despite the weather-related setbacks, Gage is confident he'll have the cemetery ready for all the families who are honoring their loved ones who are buried here this weekend.
'To me, that's what's special about Memorial Day out here, is seeing those families interact, take care of their graves that their families have and reconnect with their past,' Gage said.
Gage says he's hiring a team of professional mowers instead of having his staff take on the job all by themselves.
He estimates less than half of the 50-acre cemetery has been mowed ahead of the holiday weekend.
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