Jul 7, 2017 3 min read

CHARLEROI – A Charleroi woman is spearheading efforts to restore and maintain a neglected cemetery whose former owner was convicted last year of raiding its trust fund.

As president of the new Charleroi Cemetery Association, Stacey Wolfe signed a deal in June to purchase the property in Fallowfield Township for a dollar, and she is preparing a fundraising campaign for the project.

“We are asking people to be patient. We are going to take care of it,” Wolfe said Wednesday when she held a meeting at the Charleroi Market House to provide an update on her progress.

There are many challenges ahead at the cemetery, which has a road from Deanbroggi Road that is steep, dangerous and in need of repairs. There are graves on the property that were not filled in, leaving holes deep enough to reach down and touch vaults.

One of the former cemetery owners, Joseph Minkovich of Fallowfield, has paid the nonprofit $8,750 in restitution under the terms of his guilty plea to theft and related charges in Washington County Court in December, court records show. He raided the cemetery’s $28,000 perpetual care fund and has been placed in the county’s Accelerated Rehabilitation Disposition program after entering an open plea in the case before Judge Gary Gilman, online court records show.

The association also needs to register a $25,000 bond with the state Real Estate Commission before it can sell plots again under a promise of perpetual care for the graves, Wolfe said.

Meanwhile, the cemetery and a funeral home are being sued in Washington County Court by the estate of Barbara Ann Waggoner after her unburied cremated remains were discovered nearly a year after her death in a unlocked shed on the property.

Her son and executor of her estate, Daniel Worthington of Centerville, is claiming breach of contract and negligence in the lawsuit that also lists Schrock-Hogan Funeral Home and Cremation Services Inc. of Charleroi as a defendant. Waggoner died in August 2014 in New Mexico, where her body was cremated and the remains were shipped a month later to Schrock-Hogan pending a memorial service.

Schrock-Hogan, in its response to the lawsuit, said it didn’t have a contract with the estate and believed the law doesn’t give the estate the right to seek damages claimed in the lawsuit.

Wolfe said the cemetery’s records are incomplete, that she hopes that families with relatives buried in the cemetery will help the board recreate files.

“The road and maintenance are the number one issue,” she said, adding that it’s expected to cost $50,000 to repair the road’s pavement.

A local man has been cutting the grass and filling the unfilled graves with soil, she said.

“Just give us some time,” said Jodi Yerkey, secretary of the cemetery board.

John Bauwell of Monessen said he attended Wednesday’s meeting to make sure someone is taking care of the cemetery.

“I came out of concerns that my grandfather’s grave is being taken care of,” Bauwell said.

Wolfe said she is planning a cemetery-themed cash bash in October to raise money for the cemetery.