You Can Visit Woodlawn Memorial Park Again Thanks To 2 Joliet Men

JOLIET, IL — The Pennsylvania-based corporation that owns cemeteries across the U.S. did not get around to clearing the storm-damaged entrance into Joliet's Woodlawn Memorial Park 2 since September, so two young men from Joliet's Cunningham Neighborhood got the job done, using their own chain saws and heavy equipment, all on their own free time this week.

Last weekend, Joliet Patch produced two separate news stories regarding Woodlawn Cemetery's failure to clean up the mess that has been plaguing the cemetery for three months.

On Tuesday afternoon, Dillon Harrison, age 30, and his friend, Geno Moretti, 31, took it upon themselves, spending four hours cutting down several giant downed trees blocking access into the Woodlawn Cemetery. The downed trees prevented families from visiting Woodlawn Cemetery 2. There are more than 500 graves located in the smaller, secluded cemetery that's hidden behind the trees along the busy West Jefferson Street corridor.

Originally, Harrison planned to do the work himself, but he accidentally "butt-dialed" his friend, Moretti, who decided to help with the clean-up effort.

The Joliet west-side cemetery has been off-limits to the public since September, perhaps even August, according to Harrison, who was trying to visit his grandfather's grave site. His grandfather had given him a motorcycle before he died, and Harrison has wanted to drive the motorcycle into Woodlawn Memorial Park 2 to spend time at his grandfather's grave site.

On Tuesday, fed up and frustrated with the Pennsylvania-based company that owns Woodlawn Cemetery, Harrison and Moretti used their own chainsaws and pickup trucks to get all the trees taken down, and they cleared off the road.

Then, on Wednesday, they said, Woodlawn hired a tree-cutting service to show up and haul away the downed trees.

However, Woodlawn then erected a barricade to keep vehicles out of the cemetery, and that barricade was still in place Friday when Joliet Patch met with Harrison and Moretti for the interview.

In addition to the downed trees, months back, two small sections of the road on opposite sides were washed away by the storms. For liability reasons, Woodlawn's out of state company management team decided they did not want people driving on the road into the cemetery, so they kept the downed trees blocking the road on purpose to keep people away.

Now, with all the trees chopped down and removed from the road, Harrison and Moretti told Joliet Patch on Friday that family and friends can park on the site and walk around the vehicle barricades to visit the graves of their loved ones.

Harrison said that Woodlawn should be able to hire contractors to backfill the soil erosion along the road with dirt or gravel and have "the whole road done in two days."

"It's their liability that led to this," Moretti explained.

"Why did it take us coming out for them all of a sudden to get it done, and all of a sudden they act like they care?" Harrison said, of hauling away all the dead trees previously blocking the road.

Harrison and Moretti said they are not looking to be compensated from Woodlawn Memorial Park for their four hours of work removing and cutting down the dead trees, but they are wiling to accept a case of beer as gratitude.

Both Joliet men say they are now monitoring the situation carefully to see if Woodlawn Memorial Park gets the washed out entrance and exit road repaired in the near future.

There is no reason the work cannot be done before Thanksgiving, they suggested.

"If the weather holds up," Harrison said. "Just quit giving people excuses and get it done, just get it done, or we will."

On Friday, when Joliet Patch interviewed Harrison and Moretti, one older woman emerged from inside the cemetery for Woodlawn Memorial Park 2, and she walked down the entrance road leading out of the property.

On Tuesday, as they chopped down the dead trees, at least three people walked up the road to visit their loved one's graves, they said.

With Veterans Day approaching along with the Christmas holidays, Harrison and Moretti wanted to be sure that people could at least walk up the entrance road to get into the cemetery. Until the dead trees were removed from blocking the road, that was impossible.

"Even though it's barricaded off," Moretti said Friday, "people are encouraged to walk in and see their loved ones."

Related Joliet Patch coverage:

Joliet Cemetery Falls Apart And Nobody Is Fixing It: Ferak Column

Woodlawn Cemetery VP Says Washed Out Road Will Get Fixed Soon