Blanketed from the first snow of the season, Oakland Cemetery off Broad Street in Cranston hardly looked like it needed the attention early Saturday morning of about 60 people prepared to pick up trash.

The snow and a temperature at 29 degrees made for a frosty start, but it didn’t slow down the cleanup that started at 7:30.

There was no lack of trash – a sad reality, according to Cristine DeMarco, who owns the one of the houses bordering the eight-acre cemetery and says she has a “spiritual and historical connection” to the graveyard.

DeMarco owns the house where two sisters who cared for the cemetery lived until their deaths in their 90s. Also, she was a grave stone carver before moving to the state.

She and Pegee Malcolm, chair of the Rhode Island Historic Cemeteries Commission, joined the cleanup crew. Both are appalled by the lack of stewardship the cemetery’s owner, Russell Dodd, has shown for the property. They said Dodd takes little care of the property and doesn’t return calls, and they suspected he was in Florida as volunteers cleaned up the place.

Malcolm said Dodd is a third-generation owner of the cemetery, which by New England standards is not exceptionally old. According to the cemetery website, it was established in 1847. Malcolm estimates there are 3,000 graves. She said cemetery records are poor, which she said is indicative of the management.

Malcolm and DeMarco said the cemetery has been used as a dumping ground. Mattresses and debris are left alongside graves. But the bigger part of the trash is made up of discarded bottles, cans and bags of garbage. Also, dead flowers and remembrances left by visitors are scattered about.

That wasn’t daunting for Bobby Martorelli, who has volunteered the services of his Warwick landscaping company for several community projects. Martorelli said he saw a news clip about the cleanup on Channel 10 and signed up. He brought six of his crew along with a truck, tractor with bucket loader and a dumpster. He rallied his friends at DiTusa Home Improvement, who also brought a truck and more hands.

As the word of the cleanup got out on social media, Martorelli surmises, the numbers of volunteers grew. Joining the ranks were seven inmates from the Rhode Island Training School under the direction of Larome Myrick of Juvenile Justice.

As the sun climbed and the day warmed, patches of green grass showed through the snow. Snow slid from the trees, dusting the cleanup crew.

In two hours, Martorelli was pulling out his equipment. The dumpster was full and on its way to the state landfill.