Sasol to improve, keep open cemetery
Published 10:32 am Sunday, January 25, 2015
Dorothy Felix says she will fight to make sure Mossville’s Morning Star Cemetery will remain open long after Sasol’s massive plant expansion in Westlake.
And it’s a fight that will only end in writing.
Felix, a lifelong resident of Mossville, told the American Press on Friday that she would like Sasol to add language to its developer’s agreement with Calcasieu Parish that the cemetery will remain open and that burials will continue on site.
“I’m hoping that language can be put in the document so that in years to come no one will be able to say that is was not documented or that it was not agreed upon,” Felix said.
“I don’t want an oral statement. I’d rather have it in writing saying that it can be done.”
Felix said she wants to make sure that the cemetery’s access road is kept in good condition so that visitors can enter at any time. Morning Star is the final resting place for generations of Mossville residents, including many of the community’s founding families.
“We don’t want a gate there so we would have to ask permission to get in there,” she said. “We want to be free to be able to go in there anytime we like.”
Kim Cusimano, Sasol’s senior public and government affairs specialist, said the developer’s agreement already requires the company to maintain access to all cemeteries in Mossville.
“We certainly plan to honor those intentions,” she said.
In addition to maintaining access to Morning Star, Cusimano said Sasol representatives are researching who the cemetery’s owner is so they can access the property legally for possible beautification work.
Once access is granted for work, Cusimano said, Sasol will begin talks with residents on beautifying the site.
“We’ve had several inquiries from the residents,” she said. “We want to get it back to its original state and keep it maintained.”
Like all cemeteries, Morning Star will eventually be full. Felix said “a little bit of room” still exists at Morning Star for burial. She said she would like to talk to Sasol about possibly extending the cemetery’s acreage for future burials.
Cusimano said Sasol neither wants nor needs the cemetery property for its plant expansion. Site work is already underway for Sasol’s $8.9 billion ethane cracker complex.
Morning Star Cemetery in Mossville. (Rick Hickman/American Press)
