SALEM — Town health officials are warning a local mausoleum owner to clean up his act after they learned woods behind the property have become somewhat of a dumping ground.
The woods behind Eternal Light Mausoleum on Pond Street are littered with rusted paint cans, broken vases, empty chemical containers and hundreds of decaying floral arrangements.
Health Officer Brian Lockard said he inspected the property yesterday, and the amount of garbage in the woods concerned him.
He said he will send a letter to the owner, Andrew Grasso of Methuen, Mass., this week and request that he properly dispose of the items now scattered throughout more than 100 yards of land. If Grasso does not comply, the town could fine him or take him to court.
This isn't the first time that Eternal Light has drawn the attention of government officials. Last summer, the state attorney general's office investigated the mausoleum's finances after families complained about the condition of the facility. The investigation is now closed after Grasso complied with requests for more than three decades of financial information.
Lockard said he toured the woods behind the mausoleum yesterday morning and documented his visit with photos. He said the amount of trash he found was troubling for many reasons.
"First of all, there is a state law that says you can't change your yard into a junkyard," he said. "There's a number of concerns back there, including a bunch of chemical containers that appear empty now and we don't know what may have leaked out."
Among the debris on the property are canisters of grout additive, cans of air freshener, oil containers, caulking tubes and cleaning products that bear "health hazard" warning labels on the bottle.
Lockard said the trash also is worrisome because it could attract animals to the area, which is open to the public on most afternoons.
A phone call to Grasso yesterday was not returned.
Trash behind the facility also includes a rusted hot water tank and a couch that a squirrel has made a home in, according to Lockard. There also are tires, which he said could become a breeding ground for mosquitoes because they hold standing water.
There are other areas in the woods where black trash bags are piled upon one another — at least two deep — and are covered by dead leaves or floral arrangements. There are hundreds of plastic and live floral arrangements thrown in the woods. Some still have cards signed by family members attached and many are beginning to decompose.
Lockard said it's hard to tell how long some of the trash has been there.
"Some things have clearly been out there for a lot more than a year," he said. "But there are so many different areas where (debris) is scattered throughout that it's hard to say (how long items have been out there)."
There does not appear to be a Dumpster on the site, which is on 18 acres of property.
Eternal Light Mausoleum made news last summer after more than a dozen residents complained about leaky skylights, an odor of mildew and cracked windows in the facility.
Most of those problems have since been addressed, but those complaints led to an investigation by the attorney general's office. Officials there said they didn't even know the mausoleum existed because Grasso had not filed the financial paperwork required by law since opening the site in 1974. He has since filed the paperwork and registered his business with the state.
That incident led Salem and Windham lawmakers to create a bill aimed at ensuring that a for-profit mausoleum will never open in the state again. The bill has already passed the House and Senate, and Gov. John Lynch is expected to sign it into law.
Lockard said he will mail a letter to Grasso that requests a cleanup of the property in the next couple of days. He said he will then revisit the site and see if progress has been made. If not, he said the town may take Grasso to court.
