PEABODY — A Peabody cemetery has decided to crack down on unwanted trespassers after suffering repeated vandalism and a recent incident involving local youths who directed pellet gun fire in the vicinity of employees.
"Kids with a pellet gun claimed that they were shooting at one of our Dumpsters, but they came awfully close to employees," said Larry Glynn, director of operations at Puritan Lawn Memorial Park.
Glynn was describing the scene last Friday afternoon at the 140-acre property off Route 1 south. Police identified eight boys, all from Lynnfield, in connection with the incident.
It capped roughly two years of headaches for cemetery management, according to Glynn. Kids have been caught on all-terrain vehicles doing "doughnuts" on grave lots, he said. Equipment has been vandalized, and windows have been broken.
"That was the tipping point," Glynn said of the pellet gun being fired near employees, "no doubt about it."
Puritan Lawn has decided to limit access to 40 acres of open space located within its boundaries. The cemetery will resurvey its land to establish visible property boundaries. "No trespassing" signs will be posted to notify potential interlopers that they will be subject to prosecution.
"It's unfortunate," Glynn said. "I've been here for 40 years, and it's the first time we've ever had to do anything like this."
Puritan Lawn is the oldest memorial park on the East Coast. It was once a private estate owned in the nineteenth century by Henry Saltonstall and later John Pierce, vice president of the American Radiator Company.
It became a cemetery in 1934. Instead of gravestones, monuments or tombs, graves are marked with bronze memorials that are flush with the ground.
Glynn said that Puritan Lawn has long enjoyed an amiable relationship with its residential neighbors. The cemetery has "looked the other way a little bit" and allowed people to stroll the scenic grounds, which border Lake Suntaug.
About 30 to 40 people a day regularly enter through the cemetery's main entrance to take a walk on cemetery grounds, Glynn said. The new restrictions won't disrupt this routine.
"99.9 percent of people who use the cemetery won't be affected," Glynn said.
The restrictions are aimed toward a collection of 10 or more youths who access the cemetery through lawns that abut it, Glynn said. Peabody police advised Puritan Lawn to take steps to clearly define its boundaries.
Glynn hopes it will help deflate tension that has arisen and end "ongoing confrontations with groups of young men."
"I don't want the kids to get hurt, and I don't want the employees to get hurt," he said.
The decision was not easy for the cemetery.
"We're really very reluctant to do this," Glynn said. "The main reason (to do it) is to let people know that this isn't acceptable behavior."
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