Cemetery
fees increased; administrator gets raise
by Shana
Haines
Landmark reporter
Fees dealing with the Platte City Cemetery were increased
by the board of aldermen at a meeting Tuesday night.
According to Tanya Bates, city clerk, the cemetery has
been operating in a deficit for the past four years, and
will do so this year.
The last plot increase was in 2001 when the cemetery
committee increased prices by $50, bringing the sale price
of a grave lot to $350.
Currently, $250 of the fee is placed into perpetual care
and the remaining $100 is used for operation expenses.
Since the city's plot costs are considerably lower than
area communities, it was suggested by the cemetery committee
to increase the lot price.
The cemetery committee had previously approved and recommended
an increase in the purchase of a grave lot to $500, with
the entire amount being placed in perpetual care.
By placing the entire amount in perpetual care, once
the cemetery is full there will be enough money that the
cemetery can be maintained with the interest from the
fund.
To generate operating revenue it was also recommended
by the cemetery committee to propose a $450 grave opening
and closing fee at the time of burial.
"We are not in the business of making money on the
cemetery. We do have to have money to do maintenance,"
Mayor Dave Brooks said.
City Administrator Keith Moody said the increase was
the best option for the cemetery.
"It (the increase) is a little higher than some,
but lower than others. We have to deal with the cemetery
or subsidize it out of general funds, and you don't want
to do that," Moody.
A formal policy on how a monument should be installed
in the cemetery was also added to the cemetery code. In
the past, monument companies erected the monuments however
they chose.
In another matter, after recent complaints that dog owners
were allowing their animals to "do their duty"
on sidewalks and on the private property of others, aldermen
approved amending the animal regulations portion of the
city code.
The amendment reads as follows:
"An owner of every animal, when such animal is off
the property controlled by the owner shall be responsible
for the removal of any excreta deposited by such animal
on public property, public walks, public street, public
parks, public cemetery, rights-of-way and on private property."
Prior to the meeting, aldermen met and discussed a pay
increase for Moody.
Alderman Ron Porter voted against the 2.32 percent increase.
"I think he makes enough," Porter said. "For
a town of this size with only 4,000 people, when you make
$60,000 that is enough."
The increase would take Moody's salary from $62,056 to
$63,500 annually.
The remaining aldermen voted for the increase.
Brooks asked aldermen to approve Tom Wooddell, the city
building inspector/codes enforcement officer, to sit on
the Platte City Parks Board. The board has two vacancies,
according to Brooks, and Wooddell was approved to fill
one of those spots.
"I have got to have some guys who want to work.
When it's 100 degrees on the Fourth of July, we have to
have someone doing snow cones," Brooks said.
Brooks added he is still seeking a second individual
to sit on the board.
Aldermen also approved the purchase of a $4,050 used
manure spreader.
The spreader was requested by Public Works Director Leonard
Hendricks in order to transport solid waste to J.D. White's
farm.
Hendricks said White is interested in the sludge, but
doesn't have a spreader.
Hendricks added purchasing the spreader would be the
most cost efficient. And the farm is only six miles away,
as compared to the previous farm the waste was transported
to, which was 20 miles away.
Hendricks said it would be $13,000 for a new spreader.
The purchase is not a budgeted item. However, Hendricks
stressed the urgency of the purchase.
"We have two basins that are ready to go. We have
a plant that produces a lot of sludge," Hendricks
said.
|
