By Jackie Gorski
Times-Union

WARSAW — City officials have made their first steps into possibly formulating a five-year master plan for Oakwood Cemetery.

Sexton Hal Heagy told the Oakwood Cemetery Board of Regents Thursday, March 2, he has met with city engineer Aaron Ott about the plan.

In February, Heagy said one of the things he wanted to look into doing with the plan was updating water lines in the north and south sections of the cemetery due to leaks. Leaks in the cemetery’s water lines have been a topic of discussion for several months. Heagy said about 85% of the cemetery was without water for most of the summer due to the leaks.

Thursday, Heagy said when he met with Ott they talked about water lines, but Heagy hasn’t heard anything more yet from Ott about the topic. The cemetery is probably looking to put less water lines in the old part of the cemetery than there currently are. They will look into running a new line from Sheridan Street to the chapel and office, as well as a water filling station.

Also, Heagy said the cemetery has a 160-gallon tank the cemetery uses for water. He brought up the possibility of getting a bigger tank, but he will come back to the board at a later point when he has more information on how much it would cost and if it’s something that needs to be done.

In other business, the board heard:

• Cemetery staff has prepared the ground for sod placement for winter burial lots.
• Cemetery staff is filling in low spots in the cemetery with dirt.
• Stone work in Legion Circle #3 around the flagpoles is done. The next stone project will be doing a retaining wall around “The Old Rugged Cross” grave sites in Block 17.
• The cemetery gave away 10 loads of wood in February during its giveaway program.
• Heagy said the cemetery is out of wood to give away, so he called Combined Community Services to let them know they have to stop providing vouchers for wood for now.

Heagy said cemetery staff is looking for branches or trees that have to be taken out in order to use for wood for the program.

The next meeting will be at 5 p.m. April 6.