Raymond Partsch III/Ville Platte Gazette
Sarah Anna Doucet Thomas just wants her late husband’s body to be at rest.
“I will be relieved of a lot of stress when he is laid to rest,” Thomas said. “This is a heavy burden right here to see a loved one when you put him to rest and he ain’t resting right. He was good man when he was alive and he is still a good man. Please put him back in the ground and let him rest. Let’s get some closure.”
Thomas’ loved one, who passed away in 2012, currently lies in one of the 113 damaged cement tombs inside the St. Matthew’s Baptist Missionary Church and Gallow Family Cemeteries located on Shuff Road outside of Ville Platte. The tombs were either shifted around and have sunken into the ground, were completely forced out of the ground and floated to another location inside the cemeteries or became unsealed due to the historic flooding the state of Louisiana experienced back in August of 2016.
More than 50 concerned residents and family members were at the cemeteries on Feb. 2 to discuss the issue, with concerns voiced about the confusion surrounding the process of FEMA issuing checks for the repair work of the tombs.
“The community is getting frustrated, the Police Jury is frustrated, the pastor is getting frustrated,” said the Rev. Freddie Holmes Jr. who serves as associate pastor at St. Matthew and whose late godmother is one of the affected tombs. “If people are going along with the process then that is where the conflict comes in. But I am hopeful that the situation can be resolved soon. I don’t have a doubt in my mind about that.”
“I am very frustrated,” Thomas added. “I didn’t think we would catch the New Years having him like this. I didn’t know all of this stuff was going on. Then all this FEMA stuff — it really hurts.”
The confusion among many residents was the process in which the tombs are being repaired or in some cases replaced. The repair funding is through the FEMA’s Good Samaritan Program, but that program states that no church or business or governmental entity can be allowed to apply for repair funding for a cemetery.
That meant that individual citizens or good samaritans must be the ones to apply for the aid and to be held responsible for the repairs for tombs that were unidentified. The deadline to make sure to receive that aid was last year and the cemeteries were one of the last of 72 statewide to actually be identified.
But to receive the FEMA aid before the deadline passed, numerous residents had to become claimants that way the funds could be sent out.
Numerous residents signed up to be held responsible for the grave sites, including several that are still considered to be unknown.
During that time, the church reached out to Donald Ray Thomas Construction in Ville Platte to provide a bid to repair the 113 tombs. That estimate was then submitted to FEMA and a few weeks ago, the agency began to send out checks (ranging from $600 to $4,500 depending on the severity of the damage) to each claimant for the repair or replacement of each tomb.
That has caused concern amongst residents, some of who have now come to find out that their loved ones are actually the ones that are inside the damaged tombs, about the intentions of those claimants.
“I hope this will be resolved soon,” said St. Matthews’ longtime pastor the Rev. Freddie Durgin. “I am praying for that but some bad things have been going on. Some of those people have cashed those checks and you’re not supposed to cash it. That’s wrong.”
Seidemann cleared that up by stating at Monday’s meeting that 71 of the checks (which are being housed in a vault at the Police Jury’s Offices) issued have been accounted for, and only seven individuals that are responsible for other checks have yet to be contacted but they will be in the next few days.
Another issue is that now that family members know that loved ones are the ones in affected tombs, they are wanting to be the ones held responsible for the repairs, instead of the claimants. The only problem is that the claimants are the only ones that can be held responsible due to the funding being provided by FEMA.
“I know not one of those people that are on my listbut I just signed up which made me responsible for those graves,” Police Juror Daniel Arvie said. “FEMA assigned us those graves and all the people that were there that day were assigned as good samaritans. So we are responsible. I am sorry even though these graves may be your family that doesn’t mean that I have to give you the check that FEMA gives me. I am responsible for those five graves so I can’t hand it over to you.”
“Without us submitting the bid back then there would have been no checks now,” said Daniel’s son Nathaniel Arvie, who works for Thomas Construction. “Now that they all received their checks now they want to get their own contractor. It took us two months to put in the bid for this job.”
Many of the residents also are disagreeing with who should be doing the tomb repair work, and also questioning if the claimants are actually using the money to do the repairs and not pocketing the money.
“My initial concern was the amount that was issued out per grave,” said Arthur Sampson, who has also filed a complaint to FEMA about the list of claimants being published on Facebook. “FEMA told us in that meeting last year that we were going to get a specialist in this kind of repair out of Baton Rouge and New Orleans to come in and do the estimate. That’s why I signed up.
“Now they are collecting checks but they aren’t giving receipts and no work has been done. I called Dave Monuments out of Lawtell and this man has been doing this for nearly 60 years. He gave me an estimate for $350 to $400 per grave for the ones I am responsible for. Yet FEMA gave me $900 per grave.”
Daniel Arvie says that there was nothing wrong or inaccurate with the construction company’s process, and further stated that these concerns have now halted any work being done at the cemeteries, thus forcing loved ones to continue waiting on having them laid back to rest.
“The checks finally came in from FEMA. Some of them have decided not to turn over the checks because they want to find their own contractor,” Daniel Arvie said. “The deal is that checks were based on a bid that came in and the contractor turned in the bid to how much it would cost. It is not right because it is his bid that he put in for the job, and one that the pastor and church agreed to.”
During his address to residents on Monday, Seidemann attempted to quell any residents’ concerns about what happens to the money, even if the church does decide to allow a family member or claimant to use a different contractor. He said if the work can be done cheaper then any leftover money would be sent back to FEMA and that if anyone attempts to pocket the extra cash that they would be committing a serious crime.
“If someone did something with that money that they weren’t supposed to, then this is fraud. It’s fraud at a federal level and state level,” said Seideman. “They’ve obligated themselves to do cemetery repairs with those checks. Whether they like it or not they will have to come up with that money. The reality is this is something that could land them in a criminal situation. It’s federal money and can carry fairly significant fines for fraud.”
Seideman also recommended that the church try to use one contractor for the job as it is “infinitely easier to use one company,” and that whatever contractor or contractors is selected that they must be bonded and insured since the contractors will be using heavy machinery and cranes.
Clinton “Shorty” Roberts though didn’t have to deal with the process. Even though some of his relatives are in some of the damaged tombs, Roberts made sure shortly after the flood last year to repair his mother and cousin’s tombs because he “didn’t want to wait.” He paid the $800 out of his own pocket and was later reimbursed by FEMA.
Roberts though expressed hope that the rest of his family, as well as dozens of others, could soon have their loved ones back to rest.
“I hope everything can be resolved,” Roberts said. “Everyone is worried about their loved ones. You just worry about your loved ones being done right.”