Action News Jax investigation leads to community cleanup

An Action News Jax investigation gets results on a historic African-American cemetery in St. Johns County, in disrepair.

Action News Jax has been working to find out who’s responsible for the weeds covering grave sites and headstones at Woodlawn Cemetery in West Augustine.

A neighbor said that after seeing our stories, he decided to do what he could to help clean it up.

With his hands covered in dirt, Matthew Deitz had been donating his own time to clean up Woodlawn Cemetery.

MORE: Historically black cemeteries in St. Augustine in disrepair

“I just came out with a push mower and a weed eater and started to cut it down,” Deitz said.

Action News Jax first reported on the historic African-American cemetery last Monday.

It has been left in disrepair since 2017 after the nonprofit corporation that was overseeing the cemetery since 1993 dissolved their involvement.

Greg Wadley initially reached out to Action News Jax since his relatives are buried there.

“I got tired of walking through the woods to visit my family,” Wadley said.

For more than NINE hours, Dietz said he worked to clean up this cemetery and it happened after watching our story with his friend.

“He said it’s sad, my dad’s been buried there for over four years and (I) haven’t been able to visit him, but once,” Dietz said.

Other volunteers have also stepped in to help clean up.

“Somebody needs to take responsibility for this graveyard,” volunteer, Christopher Ellis said. .

According to state law, the county is responsible for maintaining a cemetery that has been abandoned for six months.

But since the cemetery isn’t licensed and regulated by the state, the county is authorized to step in, but there isn’t a legal obligation to do so.

Wadley said he is glad to see the community is now coming together to maintain the cemetery.

“It looks 100% better than it did and I’m proud of that,” Wadley said.

A community organized cleanup is scheduled for Oct. 6th at 9:30 a.m.

And Dietz said close to 50 people have volunteered so far.

Cox Media Group