LONG NECK, Del.- A cemetery at the corner of Routes 5 and 24 will be moved as final site plans for a new Community Bank Delaware location get the approval from the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission.
The cemetery has graves from the 1800s, and will be moved to Woodlawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Millsboro.
According to Alexander Pires, chairman of the board for Community Bank, it was not known how many graves were on the property when it was first purchased.
"The closing on the property took place in May 2022, at which time we again walked the property and noticed the one headstone,' he told CoastTV in an email. "Its location was not near or in the way of the planned development. Our intention at that time was to leave it as is and build a protective fence around it."
"After the closing, we hired a company to clear the property which had a house, two garage style storage buildings and some 25-30 years of overgrowth of trees. They were also hired to take down the house and garage of the adjoining property which we bought earlier in 2022. At that time the contractors discovered 8 other headstones buried beneath the ground, most were in a state of disrepair, broken, or had pieces missing," he continued.
According to Pires, Delaware Law allows for property owners to move cemeteries to new facilities.
"We thought the idea would be more respectful of those buried at the cemetery and thus be more appropriate," he told CoastTV.
In another email sent to CoastTV, an email from the bank to the family of the deceased said quote:
"We have come to the conclusion that the decisions regarding the future of the cemetery should be made by the Lingo family and not Community Bank Delaware. I say this even though the cemetery plot is only 1600 sq feet, less than 1% of the bank’s 3 acre site at Route 24 & Indian Mission Road. It’s not the size of the plot but its condition and history that troubles us."
But not everyone thinks removing this cemetery is respectful.
"My first reaction was kind of disgust," said Joseph Hagen. "It rubs me the wrong way to be displacing the dead."
The bank pledges utmost care in the next steps, whatever those may be.
"Our position from the very beginning of this project was to be respectful of the cemetery in any and all plans for this site," a statement from President Jack Riddle reads.
The graves will be getting new headstones when they are moved. It is expected to happen in the coming month.