Tulare Public Cemetery District to Remove All Upright Monument Flower Vases at the Kern Avenue Cemetery Starting October 1
At the Tulare Public Cemetery Board meeting August 29, 2019 it was voted to remove upright monument flower vases at the Kern Avenue cemetery beginning October 1, 2019. This action was taken because of mosquitoes that have bred in large numbers from water retained in the monument flower vases from lawn watering at the cemetery. After reviewing information provided by the Tulare Mosquito Abatement District of the unusually large number of mosquitoes being trapped by the District at the Kern Ave Cemetery and the day and nighttime varieties of mosquitoes found in their traps at this cemetery, it was decided to remove the monument flower vases as a source of standing water. The monument flower vase in ground receptacle can still be used for flowers but not in the removable upright vases. The Tulare Mosquito Abatement District has in the recent past and will continue to treat the Kern Ave cemetery property to reduce the mosquito numbers, but the standing water in the upright monument flower vases are a continual mosquito breeding source.
The monument flower vases are not the property of the Tulare Cemetery district, but of the owner of any burial plot(s) at the Kern Cemetery located at 900 E Kern Avenue in Tulare. It is asked that the owners of the monument flower vases remove them or turn them upside down completely recessed into the receptacle before October 1, 2019. After this date the Tulare Cemetery District will remove and store any monument flower vases found upright or not completely recessed into the receptacle. The monument flower vases will be retained for an undetermined time, but there are no plans to allow them to be installed in the future.
This action does not apply to the other cemetery property operated by the Tulare Public Cemetery District, called the North Cemetery, located at 4572 J St in Tulare.
For information from the Tulare Public Cemetery please contact Leonor Castañeda at (559) 686-5544 or [email protected]. The Tulare Public Cemetery office is located at the Kern Cemetery, 900 E. Kern Ave in Tulare.
For information from the Tulare Mosquito Abatement District please contact John Avila at (559) 686-6628 or [email protected].
IF THE VISALIA CEMETERY DOES THIS THEY WILL FIND SOME MAD PEOPLE IN THEIR OFFICE. WE HAVE CHANGED OUT THE FLOWERS IN MY MOMS PLOT EVERY SUNDAY SINCE SHE HAS PASSED AWAY AND THE VASE BETTER BE THERE.
It’s not the vase, it’s the water that you put inside the vase. Why not purchase artificial flowers (check out the Dollar Store- they always have pretty ones to chose from) that way you can change them out every Sunday and you will always have that “fresh flowers” look. Recycle them throughout the year; winter flowers, spring flowers, summer flowers, fall flowers. Adapt and improvise!
We completely support what the Tulare Cemetery District is doing in helping to control this new species of mosquito that has proliferated in our city. This species (Aedes Aegypti) is not the mosquito we are used to dealing with. It’s preference for small “cryptic” sources to lay it’s eggs inside of is a game-changer in our efforts to control mosquitoes. The removal of these sources is not a matter of convenience, it is a public health issue and we all need to weigh the consequences of keeping these vases intact. I thank the Board of the Cemetery District for weighing those issues and making the right choices for the sake of public health.
I try to keep my upright vases filled with styrofoam to make sure the flowers, flag, solar light stay in place … very little water accumulates in the vases.
Could/Would it be an acceptable option to drill a hole on the bottom and/or several small holes around the side (near the bottom) of them, so water would not accumulate in the upright vases? I would be HAPPY to pay to have it done and be allowed to keep my upright vases.
I’m wondering, because it is the Tulare Public Cemetary, was there any “notice” to the “public” that this was going to be discussed and voted on at the August 29th meeting? Now that the article hit Valley Voice and has been shared on Facebook … many of the “public” are now discussing the decision regarding the removal of the upright vases that were an ADDITIONAL cost when ordering our loved ones headstone. Could above options, drilling holes, be an acceptable solution?
I admit that I’d not considered all that standing water. That would definitely be a consideration.