Ghost Group Denied Access To Cemetery

I figured that it would happen one of these days, and here it is from Ellensburg, WA. The Ellensburg Daily Record has the story online here:

http://www.kvnews.com/articles/2005/10/26/news/news01.txt

Since online articles disappear with passing days, here's the text of the article, which is copyright by the Ellensburg Daily Record:

Roslyn says no to ghost chasers
Group can study cemetery during the day, but won’t be allowed at night
By LIZ BRYSON
ROSLYN — The Roslyn City Council voted Tuesday against a West Side paranormal investigator group’s request to study the City Cemetery at night, but agreed they must be permitted access to it in the daytime because it is a public place.In September, the Washington State Paranormal Investigations and Research group (WSPIR) asked the council for permission to study the cemetery at night, which is estimated to have 5,000 people buried there. The cemetery commission was against the idea and recommended the council vote against it.Jim Barich, the commission’s chairman, told council that he and other members gave WSPIR an “emphatic no” on nighttime paranormal study and said the entire concept was disrespectful to the dead.

“Some of the stones are very fragile and easily dislodged,” he said. The commission also asked that the council bar the group from studying the cemetery during the day and asked that no information about Roslyn be allowed on the group’s Web site, www.wspir.com.The council agreed to no nighttime investigations by a five to two margin. Milly Radonovich and Steve Dreier voted no, in favor of nighttime study. “I don’t see what’s wrong with it,” Radonovich said.The council later discussed daytime visits and said WSPIR would be permitted during regular hours — something the council said they must permit, according to law. “This borders on hysteria,” councilman David Porter said. “I apologize to WSPIR. They’re not going up there with picks and shovels.” Council member Larry Susich expressed strong opposition to the group and said, “Let’s not be the council that says OK to the ghost hunters.” The council also said it had no authority to tell WSPIR what it can and can not put on its Web site.WSPIR member Darren Thompson said he was disappointed by the decision, but added the group plans to come to the Roslyn cemetery again during the day to study paranormal activity, and that they plan to extend an invitation to the cemetery commission. “We wish we could have gotten to say ‘come with us and see what we do,’” he said. Thompson said paranormal activity heightens in the evening, and that from 2 to 3 a.m. activity is usually at its highest. Many paranormal groups have found that to be true, including his own, he said.