The Henderson City Council voted to award a cemetery lawn care contract to Perks Lawn Care during Monday’s regular short meeting.
The contract will be worth $52,000 a year, with approximately $18,000 held by the city for law care on an as-needed basis.
The lawn care company will also work on ways to enhance the look of Elmwood Cemetery as part of its contract.
According to Assistant City Manager Frank Frazier, the city had to look and change the existing ordinance in regard to the opening and closing of graves in the awarding of the contract.
The three-man crew that performs upkeep and grave services will be reassigned to other city departments; therefore, the service of opening and closing of graves will no longer be provided by the city; but rather funeral homes will open and close graves.
The council awarded more work to Perks Lawn Care in the form of lawn-cutting at Blacknall Cemetery for $475 per cut. Frazier recommended the contracting of this work so that city maintenance crews could perform other tasks, a recommendation which the council ultimately agreed with.
Those cuts would be discretionary on the city’s part.
Member Mike Rainey asked Frazier from whom a person wishing to be buried in Elmwood Cemetery would purchase his or her plot. Frazier responded that the plot would be purchased from the city.
When Rainey asked who would be paid should a person wish to be buried in Blacknall Cemetery, Frazier responded that it was done through the funeral homes.
City Attorney John Zollicoffer reminded the council that the city does not hold title to Blacknall Cemetery. He also noted that some graves are unmarked, and that digging one up causes “all sorts of problems”.
Frazier acknowledged that some people have deeds to plots in Blacknall, but he has been unable to “hunt down a map” showing who owns the cemetery. He also stated that no one is keeping central records as to who is buried there now.
The city began maintaining the cemetery in the 1980s because it “looked pretty rough” and was on an entrance route to Henderson, according to Frazier.
Member Garry Daeke questioned the role of the city in taking care of Blacknall for funeral home directors who may be selling plots that they perhaps don’t own.
Henderson Mayor Pete O’Geary asked if there was proof that funeral homes are selling plots [in Blacknall Cemetery].
Zollicoffer stressed that the city wants to ensure that it does not give funeral home permission to sell plots. He said that they should “fight for ownership amongst themselves”.
The vote to award the contracts past unanimously.