“I am pleased to announce that People’s Cemetery Company of Charlottetown has agreed to take control of the management of the Floral Hills Memorial Gardens for an interim period. Peoples Cemetery in Charlottetown was incorporated in 1883 and has a cemetery in Charlottetown on St Peter’s Road. In the next few days Peoples Cemetery will be contacting funeral homes concerning the arrangements for interments.

“Floral Hills Memorial Gardens is a 28-acre cemetery established in Fredericton, Prince Edward Island in 1956. Since 2000, the cemetery was owned and operated by Atlantic Cemetery Holdings Inc. (ACHI), a private company in Gander, Newfoundland.

“ACHI was owned and operated by Gerald Pritchett of Gander, until the time of his death in December 2002. ACHI owns three other cemeteries, two of which are located in Nova Scotia, and one is located in Saint John, New Brunswick. Despite the death of the owner, ACHI continued to operate the four cemeteries in 2003.

“It has recently come to our attention that the estate of Gerald Pritchett decided to discontinue operating ACHI and wants to find new owners for its four cemeteries. A former employee of ACHI has apparently purchased the cemetery in Saint John. Apparently a new owner has recently come forward for one of the two ACHI cemeteries in Nova Scotia.

“ACHI has indicated it wants to transfer the 28-acre Floral Hills cemetery, its perpetual care trust funds and funds sets aside for prepaid goods and services, to a new operator. A search for a new owner of Floral Hills will take some time in order to assess the operation and do all the things necessary to assume ownership of the Floral Hills cemetery.

“Peoples Cemetery of Charlottetown has hired some of the former employees of Floral Hills to ensure pending burials are done in the near future. There are now approximately 30 burials pending.”