CITY HALL
The city will continue to fund weekly Sunday openings at Grand View Memorial Park through Jan. 15 — with the exception of Christmas and New Year's eves — but will decrease those openings thereafter.
The City Council unanimously voted on Tuesday to open the cemetery from noon to 4 p.m. — as it has been doing since August — on Dec. 3, 10, 17 and Jan. 7 and 14 in order to serve patrons through the holidays.
But after Jan. 15, the city will decrease the operating schedule from every Sunday to two Sundays a month. City staff members and the council will reassess the situation in March.
Grand View Memorial Park has been closed since June, with operator Moshe Goldsman citing a lack of funds to keep the cemetery afloat.
Grand View's economic problems came after the state prohibited it in November 2005 from conducting any new business following an inspection that turned up thousands of cremated remains not properly buried or disposed of at the cemetery site.
Since August the city has been paying the costs to open Grand View each Sunday so that patrons can visit gravesites.
To date, the city has spent about $31,000 to provide access to the cemetery.
In the last 12 months, Vickie McConnell — owner of Fast Frame and secretary of the Downtown Glendale Merchants Assn. — said she has been frequently approached by transients, she has had them come into her store asking for money and has seen them hanging around the downtown area in larger numbers.
And her concerns ring true with many other area merchants, who that in recent months, they too have noticed a larger homeless population in the downtown area.
But city officials say the number of homeless on Brand isn't any higher than in the past.
Still, merchants want to see a little more vigilance, said Harry Hall, owner of Milano's Cucina Italiana and president of the Downtown Glendale Merchants Assn.
The city broke ground on the 15.5-acre downtown site in June and since then, construction crews have been busy at the site.
