FeedsCemetery fee increases are temporarily put to rest
Romulus officials met about a grave issue Monday.
Council members and city administrators met in a short study session at the municipal cemetery to plot changes at the grounds and revise the cost of burials.
The seven-member body met with City Clerk Linda Choate at Romulus Memorial Gardens on Shook and Tobine roads to learn more about some of the issues at the cemetery, and to further discuss an increase in fees.
However, when the council convened at city hall later that evening, the decision was temporarily put to rest when they tabled a vote on the proposed increases in favor of meeting one more time about conditions at the cemetery.
“We just had this meeting . . . I still think there’s more to talk about,” said Mayor Pro-Tem Randolph Gear. “I think we need more time to discuss this.”
Councilman William Wadsworth said the city could vote on Choate’s proposal to increase fees, but later conceded the council needed to dig a little deeper and thoughtfully consider all of the issues at the cemetery.
Addressing needs — and fees — was brought to the table Aug. 13 by Choate, who researched grave opening and plot prices charges by other municipal cemeteries. She discovered that the city was undercharging for the service, and that the city was taking a loss because prices have not been adjusted since 1981.
During the past 26 years, prices for maintenance, and the cost of having city public service workers open a grave, have increased.
Choate recommended the city increase the price of a plot from $225 to $500. She also recommended increasing the grave opening cost by $200 each. Currently, the price for grave openings on Monday through Friday is $725. On Saturday, the cost is set at $925, and holidays cost $1,125. Those prices were set in 1990.
Opening and closing costs for the burial of infants has gone largely unchanged since 1981 because it only takes one public service employee to bury a child, and the council felt in 1990 that raising rates would be prohibitively expensive for young families.
Other municipalities are charging $500 or $600 for a single plot, according to city research.
The cemetery is one of the oldest fixtures in the city. Gravestones date back to the Civil War era. Some headstones are sinking into the ground, obliterating dates and words on the stones unless the grass is cut shorter than usual.
Those aspects of the cemetery do require some extra consideration apart from the fees, Gear said.
“We would like to see if some of the community groups can go out there and do some work,” he said. “We want to do what ever we can to preserve (the cemetery). It’s our history.”
Any increases to costs at the cemetery will have to be approved by a majority vote of the council.
Another study session was scheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 24.
