Pictured, from left, Oakwood Cemetery Sexton Hal Heagy and Oakwood Board of Regents Secretary Ellen Hoffer.

WARSAW — At the Oakwood Cemetery Board of Regents meeting held Thursday, Sept. 6, Oakwood Cemetery Sexton Hal Heagy brought up the topic of future sites for a cremation garden and another Baby Land area.

“The cremation garden is becoming more of a priority,” said Heagy. “We’re under 40 lots here. Lot sales are unbelievable right now.” He stated he would welcome input from board members regarding possible locations.

Heagy estimates that sometime in 2020 they will need to put a new road in at the cemetery. According to Heagy, Oakwood owns 14 acres on the other side of the fence so there is land available that can be developed in the future.

“The roads and water lines will be the most expense involved,” said Heagy.   

The cemetery suffered damage from a storm that went through the area last month. According to a press release issued by the National Weather Service, a low-end EF-1 tornado touched down in Warsaw, just southeast of Pike Lake, around 8:27 p.m. Aug. 6. Numerous trees were damaged, including uprooted trees and snapped trunks. Several homes and cars were impacted by tree debris.

“It affected over 30 trees at Oakwood, with six trees down,” Heagy reported. “We’re still working on cleanup. We had numerous large limbs down.”

“Since that storm, because many of the limbs are now weak, every time we’ve had a storm since then we’ve had to go cut up one to two truckloads of wood,” said Heagy. “We currently have about 45 loads of wood.” 

Heagy, who recently suffered an injury, said he wanted to give a shoutout to his employees.

“I’ve been laid up and my employees have been working their tails off,” he stated. “They’re all tired, they’ve been putting a lot of hours in.” Heagy added that Stuart Watkins, who assists downtown with maintenance, has been helping out at the cemetery as well.  

Other News: 

• Board members discussed the location change for future board meetings. Starting in October, all Oakwood Cemetery Board of Regents meetings will be held at Warsaw City Hall.
• Cemetery employees are now using the new time card and software system implemented by the city. 
• The next regular meeting will be held at 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4.