Cemetery Board Approves 2017 Budget
WARSAW — The Oakwood Cemetery Board met Thursday, Aug. 4, to discuss the budget.
Oakwood Cemetery Sexton, Hal Heagy, presented the board with the 2017 budget for approval. The budget was pretty standard, but with one increase that was for 90 percent from the 2016 budget amount of $2,200 to the 2017 budget amount of $4,780. Heagy explained that the temp service employee the cemetery hires each year was being paid from payroll when they should have been paid from professional services. The increase was just due to transferring money from payroll to professional services; there was technically no increase.
Heagy reported to the board that he was told to figure in a 2 percent raise for salaries and wages, which he followed up with, “Doesn’t mean we’ll get it.” Fingers are crossed, though.
The 2017 proposed permanent fund budget comes to a total of $106,500, which is up 2.5 percent from last year. Broken down: $5,000 for trees; $50,000 for cemetery road repair; $50,000 for columbariums and $1,500 for cemetery professional service. Heagy stated that the money in this fund does not come from taxpayers, but from cemetery investments. Heagy explained that half of the money from each lot sold goes into the permanent fund to draw interest. The interest helps pay for some of the cemetery’s improvements.
The board approved the budget and Heagy will present it Monday, Aug. 8, to the Warsaw Common Council for approval.
Heagy told the board that after the incident with the teen playing Pokemon Go in the cemetery, he messaged the makers of the game to have all Poke stops removed from the cemetery. The company complied and there are no more stops in Oakwood Cemetery. The corner mid-posts around the mausoleum the teen struck is gray, solid marble and Heagy is hoping to be able to fix it on site when the cemetery is paid the insurance money.
In other business:
- Cemetery road repair continues with crack-fill on the asphalt and will be done all the up to Prairie Street.
- Heagy told the board he hasn’t had the time to draw the design for the columbarium in Cremation Garden, but will do it as soon as he has a free moment.
- Annually, Combined Community Service offers vouchers for wood for people in need during the winter months. The trees are ones Heagy has taken down in the cemetery and what the Warsaw Street Department has brought in.
The next regular meeting will be Thursday, Sept. 1, at 5 p.m.