Vandals damaged a new gate at Rose Hill Cemetery less than a day after the city of Texarkana, Texas, announced its installation.
A city news release on Monday touted a recently completed upgrade-including a new, automatic gate-of the historic cemetery near downtown. By Tuesday, the sensors that open the gate when a vehicle approaches had been destroyed, Public Information Officer Lisa Thompson said.
City staff said repairs could take several weeks, depending on how quickly they obtain replacement parts. As of Tuesday afternoon, there was no estimate of repair costs.
Past vandalism problems at the cemetery prompted installation of the gate, which was to stay locked from 7:30 p.m. each day until 6 a.m. the next morning to increase overnight security.
Despite the setback, City Hall hopes the improvements at Rose Hill will attract more visitors and the cemetery will even become a destination for history-minded tourists.
Over the last year, Texas-side parks and public works staff have cleared debris and brush in the cemetery, cleaned up the fence line and replaced row and section markers. As budgets allow, they are also working to rehabilitate headstones.
"This place holds a lot of history for our city. It's the resting place of many of our war dead. We're proud of it, and we hope it will become more of a tourist stop," Thompson said.
The city inherited Rose Hill from private owners and only recently gained legal access to a trust fund set up for its maintenance. The city maintains the cemetery, but burial proceedings there are a matter of private business. All the plots are sold and are private property.
A highlight among the cemetery's ornate headstones is a statue memorializing Otis Henry, the first Bowie County, Texas, man to die in World War I. Under contract with the city, Jones Monument Service recently scrubbed clean the Henry monument's white marble, edged the grass around it and cleaned the surrounding wrought iron fence and gate.
Rose Hill also contains two rows of military headstones marking the graves of other war veterans.
For more information, visit the city's website at ci.texarkana.tx.us/185/Rose-Hill-Cemetery.