Brooks Cemetery (Chat News photo)

By Chantal Wagner

'We betrayed the public’s trust'

City of Brooks apologizes for cemetery cleanup of sentimental keepsakes

Jun 29, 2021 | 3:01 PM

BROOKS, AB – An investigation is underway to determine the ‘direction of communication’ following the Brooks Cemetery cleanup last week.

During a virtual council committee meeting on Tuesday, the city’s CAO apologized for the actions.

“This (investigation) along with an apology will do nothing to change what has been done, and the grief that it has caused. What we can do, however, is ensure that this will never happen again,” Martens read in a statement.

Residents discovered special items and mementos at gravesites had been cleaned away over the weekend.

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Loved ones then had to sort through their belongings in bags in order to take them home.

WATCH: Gravesite keepsakes cleaned away at Brooks Cemetery

CAO Alan Martens says cemetery clean-up is something they do every year and this year they gave public notice that it was happening.

Martens says rightfully so, this caused many concerns as to what the city was going to do with the items.

But he confirmed it was going to be a continuation of past practices.

“So we assured everyone that we would do nothing different than we had been doing for years. City council publicly affirmed this. Today I apologize to the public. As staff, we did not follow this direction and removed basically everything. We betrayed the public’s trust, for this, I am truly sorry.”

Martens confirms that the public can put back their sentimental items at the gravesites. And adds if you don’t live in the area, public works staff can also return them.

“Clearly there was no malice in anyone’s actions, I certainly don’t believe that,” mayor Barry Morishita added. “But I believe there was a lack of thought and I know Alan’s investigation will figure out where we could have done better and where we could have been clearer and could have avoided this to a point where it will not happen again in the future.”

Meantime, counsellor Norman Gerestein says the verbal abuse the public works department is receiving is uncalled for. He asks the public to talk to a city counsellor and not staff about the issue.

“If someone wants to take out and vent their frustrations come see me and I will talk with you. I will go to where you’re at, I think that stands for the mayor and any one of our counsellors. But our staff that people are yelling at right now have absolutely nothing to do with what has transpired,” Gerestein said.