FALL IS HERE. WINTER IS COMING
The glory of seasonal change at MPG
While every season brings its charm to Mount Pleasant Group cemeteries, there’s a certain kind of special allure that fall brings. After the sun and fun of summer, autumn ushers in beauty and serenity with the leaves’ change in colour and the refreshing chill in the air across the 1,215 acres in total green space at MPG’s cemeteries.
Maintenance shifts from running seasonal summer programming and cutting grass to leaf mulching, sodding graves, and cleaning flower beds. Preparations for winter must begin in the fall as well. Summer and fall interments need to be levelled and sodded for families before snowfall, and markers need to be set before the frost, so they’re ready for winter.
Equipment also needs to be ready for the change in seasons, something Mark Harvie knows well. As Manager of Equipment Maintenance Services for MPG, he is responsible for preparing and maintaining all vehicles, equipment, and tools used by all of MPG’s cemeteries.
It’s a complex job, looking after everything from push mowers and dump trucks to snow removal and mulching equipment. Their staff always tries to stay one season ahead while knowing that wintry weather will take its toll on their equipment.
“We are already into preparing the leaf mulching, blowing, and vacuuming equipment, and getting them ready as the leaves now are coming off trees, so we’re ready for that,” he says.
The reason they stay a season ahead for preparation and maintenance is that they’ll be dealing with unexpected
You really see that a lot of our sites have beautiful tree canopies and features such as Gardens of Remembrance, that in the fall just pop because of all the foliage changes.
repairs in between, which happens frequently. If a piece of machinery breaks down, the equipment maintenance team repairs it right where it sits, even on the side of a road in cold or rainy weather.
And while winters have been getting milder, there are no guarantees. The equipment maintenance team has to be ready for anything.
“We’ve had certain years, [the snow] can be so late coming that they may not even have to use a snowplow until we get into the new year,” says Harvie.
“Either way, we stick to a routine. We can’t say, ‘you know what, I think this is going to be an easy winter, so we’ll hold off.’ The company has 10 cemeteries and 9 funeral homes, so we just go cemetery by cemetery and make sure they’re ready, which is basically all you can do. If the snow comes, we’ve got be ready for it.”