Lucretia Cortez said conditions at Sunset Memorial Park have become so bad that she has not been able to find her family members’ headstones at the Pearl City cemetery.
“I got there and I couldn’t believe how bad it was,” said Cortez, whose uncle, cousin and grandfather are buried at Sunset. “It’s just abandoned, not taken care of at all. I just told my mom, ‘It is so sad how it seems like they’ve (family) been forgotten.’”
Overgrown grass and weeds, holes in the ground and stolen urns are among the complaints raised by some families and members of the community for several years at the 4-acre property on Fourth Street, prompting the Pearl City Neighborhood Board to schedule a meeting to address the issues at 10 a.m. Saturday at Waiau District Park.
The property is registered to the Hawaiian Cemetery Association Ltd. with Lago Dozinn listed as president and director and Ginichi Iwaoka as director, according to state records.
Dozinn said Wednesday that he is not the owner of Sunset, but took charge of it for a friend, and that there is money in a fund for the property but that he did not know how much.
“It has to be better, much better than what it is,” Do-zinn, who is in his late 60s, said while cutting grass and weeds at Sunset with his grandson Wednesday. He said some of his family members, including his son and father, are buried there. “We have to cut the grass first and other plans to bring it up and keep it the way it should be.”
Business registration records with the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs show the company’s last filing was in 2007. Its license, which expired in 1995, is listed as terminated. DCCA said Thursday that officials are working with Dozinn and have a pending application to re-establish the license.
The company also owes about $14,720 in property taxes, according to city records.
City Budget and Fiscal Services Deputy Director Gary Kurokawa said in a statement that “the city will work with the landowner to come to a reasonable resolution. In the event that a settlement cannot be reached, the city will consider foreclosure, but only as a last resort.”
Lisa Wond said the urns of her grandparents, uncle and aunt were stolen from Sunset in June. They were able to recover three of the urns and part of the fourth, but not the ashes, she said.
Funeral director Darrel Salvador of nearby Leeward Funeral Home, which is operated independently from Sunset, said he would like to see a nonprofit group set up for families and community members to work together to resolve the problems. He added that several of the funeral home’s clients and some of his own family members are buried at the cemetery.
Dozinn said Saturday’s meeting would be a forum to gather ideas.
“If you’re angry you have 100 percent right to be angry,” Dozinn said. “I’m old enough to take all of the negatives.”