‘A very awkward and bizarre situation’ sees St. Marys officials cease park uses at former cemetery

Two baseball diamonds in St. Marys are shutting down because the property is still considered a cemetery. CTV London’s Sean Irvine has the story.

More than 140 years after its last burial, the souls at rest in a St. Marys cemetery have come back to ‘haunt’ the town.

The community northeast of London has been forced to idle two baseball diamonds, which sit atop the former graveyard now known as East Ward Park.

David Vessie has lived next door to the park since 1952. As a child, he would play in the weeds amongst the collapsed graves.

“Oh, yeah. All these here and all down at the end of the park. They were all over the place,” said Vessie.

Today, behind a baseball diamond sits a stack of tombstones representing the lives of settlers who passed generations ago.

It is one of two sections of stones on the edges of the vast park.

The stones have rested here since sometime in the late 1950s or early 60s when service clubs cleaned up the overgrown cemetery and transformed it into a park.

Over the following decades, most people in St. Marys have forgotten the dead still rest below.

Although some remains were reinterred in the 1880s, the town recently learned some settlers remain.

“We believe that there are still quite a few bodies that are here,” stated Jenna McCartney of the Town of St. Marys.

The information was discovered in an act of good faith.

St. Marys is attempting to assume ownership of the land from three protestant churches, two of which no longer exist.

As part of the process, they contacted the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO), an arms-length government agency, for insight.

McCartney said that call sparked an inspection and, ultimately, a violation against the town, “That’s when it became identified that they didn’t know that we were using it for active recreation currently.”

Once notified of the violation, the town ceased baseball games at two diamonds on the former cemetery site. For now, a playground will remain.

The BAO is expected to issue a final ruling by the end of summer.

“We’re maintaining the land and trying to make it a great space for people and to be respectful in the interim,” said St. Marys Mayor Al Strathdee. “So, it is a very awkward and bizarre situation, I would say. But hopefully going forward, we can work something out with the BAO.”

Strathdee anticipates residents will be allowed to use the park for light uses, including picnics and reflection, in the future.

“We have operated it without any disrespect to anyone, and we’ll have to see what the BAO says going forward,” he said.

But Vessie is torn, “It is a graveyard, and you’ve got to respect that. But you know, what harm are they (children) doing? They’re just kids playing T-ball.”