Cemetery plot owners in Athens who want more leeway in decorating gravesites probably won’t get it.

Such requests would mean changing the city’s existing ordinance and one councilman told The News Courier Friday the support just isn’t there.

“We’ve talked among ourselves and most everyone thinks we are fair with our ordinance and we see no reason to change,” said District 2 Councilman Harold Wales. “We have loved ones out there, too, and we understand the grieving process. We understand people grieve differently. We are just trying to maintain the integrity of our cemetery.”

Wales said he has received about 15 calls from constituents about the cemetery rules.

“The overwhelming majority tell me their loved ones are out there and they hope the council will not give an inch on this,” Wales said. “They want to see the city maintain the rules according to the ordinance.”

Same rules but now enforced

The issue of cemetery décor arose in November when Pat Montgomery asked the council to reconsider enforcing cemetery rules that would disallow the decorations he used at his daughter’s gravesite at Roselawn Cemetery.

His said his daughter, 27-year-old Michelle Montgomery, was killed by a drunk driver in 2015 while she was returning from a family reunion. Since then, family and friends have decorated her grave off U.S. 31 South with a lighted fence, white gravel, a bench, windmill, signage, and wreaths on stands. He said they also decorate the gravesite on holidays, including balloons on her birthday.

Months earlier, the city had decided to crack down on cemetery rule-breakers by issuing letters to those violating the existing ordinance.

Parks and Recreation Director Ben Wiley said the rules were established to allow workers to easily mow and trim gravesites and the cemetery as a whole.

Montgomery said he and his wife chose Roselawn because so many people decorated graves there. City officials acknowledged some plot owners had been aside of the rules for some time.

Of the more than 70 grave owners who received letters, Montgomery was the only one to come before the council initially. However, more than a dozen other people in support of decoration leeway attended the Dec. 12 council meeting and spoke in favor of the city easing its rules.

Some brought framed photographs of loved ones and spoke, through tears, about how installing such items as a shepherd’s hook, mailbox, lights, bench or another memento helped them cope with an untimely death.

Some said they change the theme of their décor to coincide with their loved one’s birthday or with various holidays.

Michael Lambert, a local attorney hired by Montgomery, asked the council to either give his client more time to remove his décor or to consider meeting halfway those favoring more décor. Some attendees said they would gladly pay for such a privilege.

Council President Joseph Cannon was sympathetic to those who shared support for freedom of décor. He said the council would discuss the matter but he did not promise a change in the ordinance.