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Dade City Cemetery

Cemetery complaints addressed

December 29, 2020 By Kevin Weiss

The Dade City Commission has approved a landscaping contract, after grievances aired in recent months about the upkeep of the Dade City Cemetery.

Commissioners have approved a contract with a landscaping company to maintain the grounds of the 17-acre cemetery, at 38151 Martin Luther King Blvd.

The agreement is with Gotha-based JDMF LLC, and it calls for landscape management services from April 1 through Oct. 31, at an annual cost of $37,200.

The Dade City Commission approved a contract with landscaping management firm JDMF LLC, to maintain the Dade City Cemetery during the rainy season from April through October. The cost of services is $37,300 annually for the seven months of work. (Kevin Weiss)

The seven months of work coincide with the area’s rainy season when grass grows more quickly at the site nestled in the Mickens-Harper community, on the northeast side of town, across U.S. 98.

Two other bids received for cemetery landscape management came in at $61,446 and $179,746, respectively.

The city originally budgeted $36,000 to hire an additional public works/park employee who would have shared duties between the cemetery and downtown grounds maintenance.

However, city administration felt it more prudent to outsource the cemetery workload instead.

As explained in a city memo dated Dec. 8: “Contracting out the cemetery landscape management will eliminate the current need to hire an additional employee and provide the current downtown and parks employees the help that is needed to maintain a park-like setting in our city’s downtown area. During the dry season, city employees will maintain the cemetery.”

Dade City Public Works Director Bryan Holmes also deemed the workload “too great for one employee to maintain during the rainy season.”

Funding for the contract services will come from the parks department’s operational budget. The cost for outsourcing the work will be offset by the cost of hiring an additional employee and the vehicle costs associated with maintaining the grounds, officials say.

Split decision
The decision to go with the landscaping firm was divided among commissioners, narrowly passing by a 3-2 vote at the Dec. 8 meeting.

Mayor Camille Hernandez, and Commissioners Scott Black and Knute Nathe voted for the contract. Mayor Pro Tem Jim Shive and Commissioner Normita Woodard voted against.

In dissenting, Woodard expressed concern about the number of tasks the municipality has been outsourcing — as opposed to finding solutions in-house with city workers.

“It seems like anytime we meet any type of adversity, the solution is contracting someone from the outside,” Woodard said. “I personally feel like our solution should not always be to contract out.”

She added: “It seems to be that we are consistently setting a precedent that when we can’t do the job, we are immediately going outside, and I don’t like it.”

Shive made similar points. He preferred adding another a full-time employee to handle the grounds and other areas for 12 months, instead of “turn over control of the cemetery with contracted people” for seven months of the year.

“I just want to remind everybody this is $37,000 for seven months. What is going to happen for the other five months when they’re not here to do the job?” Shive asked.

“I have a problem paying $37,000 for seven months when we can hire a full-time person that can work for the cemetery and the CRA (the Community Redevelopment Agency special district) — and we’re actually creating a job for somebody.”

The mayor pro tem, too, noted the city previously hired a contractor to maintain parking lots downtown, which led to unsatisfactory results.

The other commissioners, however, supported the city staff’s recommendation for various reasons.

Over the last handful of years, some 175 gravesites have been installed across the city’s 17-acre cemetery, sparking the need for more groundskeeping assistance. Some local residents have complained about the upkeep of the site in recent months.

“For smaller municipalities like Dade City is, sometimes you can’t do everything in-house,” Nathe reasoned. “Sometimes it is more cost-effective to hire out and go to a third party to maintain something that we don’t have the resources to do ourselves.”

He continued, “I don’t care whether it’s somebody directly employed by the city who does it or a third-party contractor.

“If staff’s telling us, ‘Listen, it’s more efficient to get a third-party contractor to do this, so that it frees up the cemetery groundskeeper to go help out in other parts of the city,’  — and I’m sure they need help during the rainy season — then I say let’s do that.”

Meanwhile, Black pointed out the firm JDMF had strong references from the cities of Lakeland and Bartow, as well as Pasco and Lake counties. Also, he surmised the contractor is set to bring in an experienced multi-person crew with their own equipment to spruce up the cemetery, likely to be more effective and efficient than any one person.

“The fact remains that we’ve got a problem that we need to take care of, and this does seem like a cost-effective way of doing it,” Black said. “You’re getting a team that comes in, that works and does this for other municipalities and a couple of counties, and I think we’re needing to do something different here, and if it doesn’t work out, then we can go back and find another way to do it, but this does sound like this could be a very good solution for us, and hopefully we can go back and break the cycle of the problems that we’ve been having of late.”

Hernandez — who was the favoring swing vote — acknowledged being “really torn” with the decision.

The mayor emphasized that the city’s public works supervisors must have regular follow-up with the landscape company. Moreover, the contractor better give ample attention to weed-eating around headstones and gravesites, she said.

“I just want to make sure that we’re doing our work, that this gets done,” Hernandez said. “As we get ready to do all this marketing of our town and not only the cemetery, but all of those things that we’re doing, that everything is looking in a way that people are proud of, especially when they’re going to pay tribute to their loved ones who’ve passed.

“We all realize this is important for people with gravesites. It’s in a lot of ways very emotional and very sentimental, as well as being something that we need to take care of.”

In recent months residents have levied ongoing complaints on the growth of weeds, and damaged graves and headstone decorations, making comments on social media and during commission meetings.

It came to a head during a September meeting when residents, including Mario Jenkins, spoke up about the conditions.

Jenkins told commissioners when he last visited his mother’s grave, he discovered some of the decorations—including a memorial cross — had been destroyed.

“Every time I go there, I seem to be disappointed,” Jenkins said. “The upkeep on the grounds is very poor.”

Cemetery duties increasing
For many years, the city was able to have a single groundskeeper maintain the entire cemetery parcel, officials say.

But, apparently that’s no longer the case.

One explanation may be the surging demand of marked graves and installed headstones over the last several years.

Dade City Clerk Angie Guy is responsible for selling cemetery spaces and when families want to have headstones installed for loved ones.

Guy explained that more than 175 graves have been added to the cemetery during the last six years.

The increasing number of gravesites has increased the workload for maintaining the cemetery, she explained, as more man hours are needed to mark the grave, install headstones, landscape surrounding areas and so on.

“The workload has increased substantially, so that’s another part of the issue,” Guy told commissioners at the meeting. “It’s not just marking the grave and that’s it. Now there’s a headstone that (residents) want installed, that (worker) is going to have stop mowing, stop weed-eating, and install the headstone, and make sure it’s installed correctly. If there’s any problems (with the headstone install), then they go back and forth…”

Published December 30, 2020

Complaints arise about cemetery upkeep

September 29, 2020 By Kevin Weiss

When Mario Jenkins went to visit his mother’s grave at the Dade City Cemetery, he discovered that some of the decorations — including a memorial cross — had been destroyed and had to be replaced.

He recently took his concerns about the shoddy conditions of the grounds at the cemetery, at 38161 Martin Luther King Blvd., to city officials and members of the Dade City Commission.

“Every time I go there, I seem to be disappointed,” Jenkins said. “The upkeep on the grounds is very poor.”

He added, “I have a landscaping business, and if I were to treat any of my customer’s yards like that cemetery, I would be out of a job, and I’d have to pay for quite a few items that are damaged along the way.”

Jenkins had aired his concerns with city officials and then presented them at the Dade City Commission meeting.

Dade City Mayor Camille Hernandez said Jenkins’ comments “definitely got our attention” and said city staff had been directed to facilitate an action plan for the cemetery.

Some cleanup has been completed, Hernandez said, “but by no means do we consider that a done deal. This is our community, and we want to make sure that we are hearing your needs and moving forward.”

Dade City Manager Leslie Porter said short-term and long-term strategies are being developed, with the help of interim public works director Bryan Holmes. The plans include additional regular deep cleaning and perhaps adding more manpower to assist the city’s full-time groundskeeper.

“We did fall short,” Porter said of cemetery conditions. “I would like to say, though, that I don’t think it’s a reflection of the individual we had dedicated out there to the upkeep.”

The cemetery is within the Mickens-Harper community, which generally borders Irvin Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard, and stretches from First Street to Taylor Avenue, among other areas.

During the Sept. 10 commission meeting, residents from the Washington Heights neighborhood complained about flooded streets and stormwater deficiencies; poor road and sidewalk conditions; and, a general lack of code enforcement presence to address trash, debris and parking issues involving a slew of nearby rental properties.

That community is generally bordered by Gaddis Avenue and Whitehouse Avenue, and includes 10th, 11th and 12th streets, among other areas.

The city has begun to take action. For instance, the Dade City Police Department has stepped up with additional patrols and enhanced its community policing efforts in the area.

Additionally, code enforcement has put in requirements that shorten the turnaround time for repeat offenders to resolve blight.

In other city action:

  • Commissioners approved a $17.7 million budget for fiscal year 2020-2021, based on a 7.14 millage rate.
  • Commissioners approved a $20,000 bid (plus disposal costs) from Sanford-based Hydro International Settled Solids Management for tank cleaning services at the city’s wastewater treatment plant. The cleaning service will be performed while the tank stays in operation and will not require draining or removing from service, officials say. The work is expected to increase the facility’s effectiveness and efficiency, and increase the lifespan of its mechanical equipment.

Published September 30, 2020

Thrasher’s impacts felt, from Atlanta to Dade City

June 29, 2016 By Doug Sanders

While he doesn’t have the name recognition of other famed railroad builders, John James Thrasher played a role in bringing the first railroad to Dade City, thus helping to develop the future county seat of Pasco County.

Little is known about his life before he reached the age of 21.

He was born on Feb. 14, 1818, as the second oldest in a family of 14 children.

From left, John J. Thrasher, George W. Collier and George W. Adair. (Courtesy of The Atlanta History Center)
From left, John J. Thrasher, George W. Collier and George W. Adair.
(Courtesy of The Atlanta History Center)

He would go on to be credited for his efforts to rebuild Atlanta after the American Civil War, and would become a prominent citizen of Georgia.

During a family reunion earlier this summer at the Pioneer Florida Museum and Village in Dade City, David Sumner described Thrasher as “a railroad builder, entrepreneur, merchant and politician.”

Sumner is the great-great grandson of Thrasher, and a 1964 graduate of Pasco High School.

Thrasher — known as “Cousin John” to his many friends and family — was hired in 1839 to do work on the terminus of the Western and Atlantic Railroad in an area near present-day downtown Atlanta.

The Georgia General Assembly had authorized the railroad construction project as a northward link to Chattanooga and the Midwest.

In early 1861, Thrasher was Fulton County’s state representative when Georgia joined the Confederate States of America.

Major battles against Union armies would take place at Chickamauga in 1863, and Kennesaw Mountain in 1864.

When Union troops under the command of William Tecumseh Sherman drew near during the Atlanta campaign, much of the population had fled the city, including Thrasher, his wife, and four sons and three daughters.

This rapid exodus reduced Atlanta’s population from around 22,000 to less than 3,000.

John J. Thrasher lived the last 15 years of his life in Dade City and is buried next to his wife, Bethuel Scaife Thrasher. According to records of the Dade City Cemetery, there are 25 family descendants also interred here. (Doug Sanders/Photo)
John J. Thrasher lived the last 15 years of his life in Dade City and is buried next to his wife, Bethuel Scaife Thrasher. According to records of the Dade City Cemetery, there are 25 family descendants also interred here.
(Doug Sanders/Photo)

On Sept. 2, 1864, James M. Calhoun, the 16th Mayor of Atlanta, surrendered to Sherman, writing, “Sir: The fortune of war has placed Atlanta in your hands.”

Union soldiers occupied Atlanta for the next two months and burned most of it to the ground on Nov. 15, 1864.

In an article published by The Pasco News in 1999, Sumner described Thrasher at 46 years of age with no possessions left in a city that was “a burned waste of destruction.”

The elegant Thrasher home on Ashby Street had been the headquarters of Confederate Gen. John B. Hood. The Atlanta Constitution reported that Union troops did not destroy it, but they carried off the marble mantels, melted the outside ornamental ironwork and converted the library into a blacksmith’s shop.

After the war, Thrasher was one of 12 charter members of the Atlanta Street Railway Company — formed to operate the city’s first streetcars in 1866 according to the Atlanta History Center.

As Atlanta’s first merchant on Marietta Street, a state historical marker currently designates the site as “Thrasherville—Where Atlanta Began,” Sumner says.

He explains that Thrasher “physically and economically laid the foundations for modern-day Atlanta.”

According to the Thrasher Family papers at Emory University and the University of Georgia, Thrasher helped to build a school and supervised the construction of the new Fulton County Jail in 1865.

“The building is neither gorgeous nor picturesque,” reported the Atlanta Intelligencer, “but it is substantial, and it will answer its purpose.”

Within four years, Georgia became the last Confederate state restored to the Union.

It was during this period that Thrasher moved north of Atlanta along the Richmond and Danville Railroad, and founded a town he named after a good friend, Jonathan Norcross, who was the fourth mayor of Atlanta.

In the 1880s, Thrasher and his wife followed two of their sons to Dade City.

The elder Thrasher planted orange trees, while one son, David, became county judge in 1887, the third superintendent of schools in 1896, and was elected mayor of Dade City on Feb. 6, 1905.

Spending the rest of his life in Dade City, the elder Thrasher gave speeches and was instrumental in bringing the first railroad to town.

In 1885, the Florida Southern Railroad (later a part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad) was built 40 feet from the present-day Dade City Cemetery, heading toward Lakeland.

This would transform the town’s economic growth.

The existing Atlantic Coast Line Depot along the U.S 98 Bypass is one of four historic depots that have served the local area.

In October 1887—23 years after Sherman set fire to Atlanta—President Grover Cleveland addressed a crowd of approximately 50,000 people attending the Piedmont Exposition.

As a showcase for the city’s reconstruction since the Civil War, The Atlanta Constitution reported that “Cousin John J. Thrasher” was at the exposition “as one of the best known and most popular men who ever lived in Atlanta.”

He died in Dade City on Nov. 14, 1899, when he was 81. In part, his obituary read: “…and now his death carries away next to the last of the three famous pioneers who were here before any of the people making this their home had ever heard of the place.”

Adding to the family legacy is Robert Woodruff, a great-grandson of Caroline Thrasher, who herself was a first cousin of (John J.) Thrasher.

Woodruff was an influential head of the Coca-Cola Company for nearly 60 years and a famous Atlanta philanthropist.

“I have spent the last 20 years researching the life of John Thrasher,” Sumner recalled during the family reunion in Dade City. “More than his accomplishments, I am touched by his character—his love, generosity, and kindness toward others. That’s why everyone called him ‘Cousin John.’”

Demand to Evacuate Atlanta
“Now you must go, and take with you the old and feeble, feed and nurse them, and build for them, in more quiet places, proper habitations to shield them against the weather until the mad passions of men cool down, and allow the Union and peace once more to settle over your old homes in Atlanta.” — William T. Sherman

Source: “Memoirs of General William T. Sherman” (Second Edition; New York. D. Appleton and Company, 1904).

Doug Sanders has a penchant for unearthing interesting stories about local history. His sleuthing skills have been developed through his experiences in newspaper and government work. If you have an idea for a future history column, contact Doug at .

Published June 29, 2016

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