Funeral home lawn cut up by vandals

Funeral home owner Graeme McIntosh says he’s sick of boyracers vandalising his street.

Earlier this week, a driver sped along the Opepe St berm and tore up the grass outside Taupo Funeral Services.

The tyre tracks are the first thing most grieving families see when they approach the funeral home, McIntosh said.

‘‘First impressions can have a lot of influence on whether you’re seen as a caring business or not,’’ he said.

‘‘We’re quite proud of our property and we try to keep it quite nice as we can because of the emotion people are feeling when they come here.’’

McIntosh, who lives near the funeral home, said he often heard cars speeding along the 50 kmh residential road at night.

Often, tyre marks were left on the road.

Graeme’s son, Barry McIntosh, manages Taupo Funeral Services with his wife Kirstine.

Kirstine said the ongoing damage to the street was infuriating.

‘‘The street sign has been knocked down four times, so now they’ve had to put it on the lamp post.’’

Graeme said he had made a considerable investment in the funeral home premises since buying the property in 1995 and he was frustrated by the reckless damage.

‘‘When we started here, there were only five trees,’’ he said.

’’This land used to be temporary housing which was provided for the Wairakei geothermal project workers. It was all soak holes and septic tanks.’’

Gardeners were employed to work on the grounds, and a lot of effort was put into keeping it tidy, he said.

‘‘We keep our prices down as much as we can, but if it costs us more to maintain the property, it’s going to cause funeral prices to go up,’’ he said.

‘‘We’re very proud of the venue we provide for the community and don’t expect any member of the community to trash it,’’ he said.

‘‘If every action has an equal reaction, let’s hope the reaction against these guys comes pretty soon.’’

McIntosh said he hoped that boyracers, upon hearing of the impact the damage has on the business, would consider driving elsewhere and avoid damaging suburban roads.

He urged the friends and families of boyracers to pass on the message too.