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Monday, October 9, 2017

Laketown Cemetery Concerns

Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Reporter
Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah.  October 4, 2017.  McKay Willis,  Chair of the Laketown Cemetery, and Dwayne  Robinson, board member, asked county commissioners  for advice on what to do with unmarked graves.  Willis said some families don’t put headstones even though there is a  rule that  a marker must be placed within one year of the internment.  Willis would like to put in a headstone on unmarked graves and put a lien on the family’s property.  He said a nice marker costs about $150.
There are two unmarked graves, one is from 1973, it had a temporary marker from Crandall Mortuary.  But there are no records about who is buried there.  

Commissioner Bill Cox said that markers are necessary to locate burials and grave, but sometimes there are family issues.   Cox said his father worked diligently to get markers on every grave in Woodruff before he died.

Cox asked about raising the lot fees or charging to open and close a grave.  Laketown spent a lot of money last year on opening winter graves.   There is a $100 cost for two graves  in Laketown.  

Opening and closing fee in Randolph is $300.  Woodruff is $100.  Cox suggested that there should be a grave opening fee in Laketown which would give them more income.  Cox suggested a $200 opening and closing fee.

The Laketown Board of Directors can set fees, but need to have a public hearing.  Willis said they will do it when the budget hearing is done.  Laketown is also going to make rules for flowers and other things to be removed within a certain period of time.  There should be nothing on the ground. 

Cox said that there should be a ordinance written spelling it all out.  Garden City Cemetery took all the shepherds hooks and disposed of them.  Because there was no ordinance in Garden City, said Cox, against shepherd’s hooks a family sued.


Norm Weston asked about reclaiming old plots that have never been used.  Willis said that they have bought some back. 

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