St. Mary’s Catholic Church is planning to install a series of five gates in order to prevent parking in the cemetery on Chestnut Street during events at the Mt. Hope High School football field located across the street. St. Mary’s Deacon Paul Bisbano, who oversees the cemetery, said they do not receive a lot of complaints about event parking in the cemetery, but they do receive some.

Other complaints have been posted to social media, with some residents complaining that parking in the cemetery, on or close to gravesites, is disrespectful.

Bisbano said he does not think the motorists are being malicious, just unaware. “I think people are innocent about it, and they just happen to park there without thinking about it,” he said.

The cemetery and its five entrances are located right across from the entrance to the sports complex. People will often park in the cemetery during events such as football games as it is closer to the entrance to the field compared to the parking lot at the school. As a result, there are often empty spaces in the school lot during those same events.

A new Mt. Hope School, part of a $200 million Bristol Warren School District improvement plan, is currently in the design phase. When built, the new school is likely to include a new artificial turf field, which will have multiple areas of entry from the school parking lot. This would make parking in the cemetery a less desirable option. For now, however, the stadium still has just the one entrance facing Chestnut Street.

Bisbano is not yet sure of the design of the new gates or the hours in which they will be open or closed. He did acknowledge that many people may be taken aback by this, as the cemetery is traditionally open 24 hours a day.

“You test the waters with anything new, as for all these years, people have had access seven days a week, 24 hours a day. So you can imagine anything that changes is going to generate a response,” he said.

Father Henry Zinno said there will be walk-in sections of the gates, to allow people to come and visit their loved ones’ burial sites after the gates have been closed. Currently, the cemetery is still accessible all day. The gates are expected to be installed before the end of the year, and work has already begun.