“I’m 60 years old and I’ve never known those gates to be closed,” Proffitt said, attributing the action to Melody Shepherd, co-owner of Thos. Shepherd & Son Funeral Directors. “I don’t know what kind of game she’s playing but she’s hurting a lot of people. She can make the hours but Saturday and Sunday is the day people don’t work, when they go (visit loved ones’ graves). I don’t see how she can stop us if we bought those plots. That’s our land, those two plots.”
One day after good Samaritan landscapers voluntarily mowed the overgrown cemetery grounds and trimmed weeds around headstones, the cemetery’s owners locked the gates.
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The Committee on Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement and Business holds a workshop via videoconference Thursday on a bill aimed at offering more protection for the drivers of funeral home vehicles.
Screenshot from video
In response to a deadly 2017 accident in Greene that killed the driver of a funeral home’s transport SUV, a legislative committee Thursday told funeral industry regulators to find ways to improve safety for their employees.
The measure, approved unanimously by the Committee on Innovation, Development, Economic Advancement and Business, ordered the Board of Funeral Services to develop new rules to protect drivers and passengers by next January. It still needs approval from the Legislature.
The heartache behind the dry words of a proposed bill sunjournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sunjournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
But those who have preneed contracts with the more than 100-year-old business should be able to transfer any prepaid contract to another funeral home, state regulators say.
The Board of Funeral Services ordered the Church Street funeral home to shut down after an inspection last summer turned up numerous violations of state regulations.
In a series of regulatory actions dating to 2018, state board inspectors have investigated at least six consumer complaints against the funeral home and its crematory, which are owned by Thomas R. “Tom” Shepherd, the licensed funeral director, and his wife, Melody Shepherd.
The state board issued a show-cause order on Oct. 29 alleging numerous violations. The funeral home responded five days later that Tom Shepherd had been experiencing health issues and was “not currently competent to address violations” spelled out in the show-cause order. The next day the state board issued the order for summary suspension of the funeral home’s license