Cookeville is making efforts to deter vandalism at the city cemetery by replacing and adding new lights.
The change comes after a juvenile allegedly destroyed more than 20 headstones. Cookeville Mayor Laurin Wheaton said the city has replaced seven lights along Scott Avenue with new LED lights and will now be aimed more towards the cemetery instead of the street. Wheaton also said one light in the Dairy Queen parking lot has been changed and will shine directly into the cemetery.
“Point them into the cemetery, because you know, it is a 30-acre property, so it is kind of hard to install cameras and things like that,” Wheaton said. “So this is the first thing that we could do just right off the bat, an easy fix to light up the area a little bit better, and yeah, hopefully keep people from vandalizing that.”
Wheaton also mentioned that even though the city has replaced the lights, the cemetery is closed to the public at night. The city is also planning to install decorative lighting in the city cemetery.
“Just the black rods with the fancier light coverings that you would say that would probably, you know, go within our parks and things like that,” Wheaton said. “Just go with things like that, sometimes those are a little bit cheaper than you know the big industrial ones that we use, and you know, to accent. You know, the cemetery is a historic part of Cookeville. It’s something that we take a lot of pride in, so being able to put decorative lights up, hopefully, will be a little more cost-effective, and again something that would be an addition to the cemetery.”
Wheaton said the plans for decorative lighting are in the early phases, so the exact number of lights and cost are still to be determined. Wheaton said that once the vandalism incident happened, the council immediately began discussing ways to improve security at the cemetery.
“If this comes, you know, we get the plan developed and it’s within budget and something that we can execute, I would not see any hesitancy from the council at all,” Wheaton said.
Wheaton said some of the headstones that were damaged have been repaired by the city. Wheaton said though the unfortunate incident happened, she was glad to see the community come together to brainstorm solutions.
