Cemetery Board

Arlington Cemetery Advisory Board General Meeting Tuesday, April 20, 2021 2:30PM Meeting via Zoom Attendees: Cemetery Advisory Board Members: Maxine Jenft - Chair Allen Ice Leilani Lucrisia Annette Patterson DeAnn Bennett Public Works Members Jim Kelly - Public Works Director Tawnya Post - Cemetery Coordinator, PW Cemetery Kris Wallace – Staff Accountant, PW Utilities Debora Nelson – Council Member General Meeting Agenda: 1. Minutes & Approval 2. Revenue & Expense Report 3. Cemetery Activities 4. 2021 Projects – Expansion  Street Signs  Fiber Optic & Underground Electric  Urn Garden  Garden Glen 5. Proposed Fee & Burial Schedule 6. Volunteer Update for Headstone Cleaning Project 7. Earth Day New Business: Other: 1. Schedule next meeting  June 15, 2021 Adjourn  Arlington Cemetery Advisory Board MEETING MINUTES February 23, 2021 / 2:30 PM Board Members: Maxine Jenft Allen Ice Annette Patterson (Not Present) Leilani Lucrisia DeAnn Bennett City Members: Jim Kelly - Public Works Director Tawnya Post – Cemetery Coordinator Kris Wallace – Staff Accountant, PW Utilities Debora Nelson – Council Member Meeting: The February 23, 2021 meeting was called to order at 2:30pm via Zoom Meeting. DISCUSSION ITEMS: Minutes & Approval: The prior meeting was from December. No actions were taken and it was a general discussion. Waiting until the February meeting to have vacant position filled and discuss agenda items this meeting. Introduction of New Board Member DeAnn Bennett: DeAnn introduced herself and the other members introduced themselves. Revenue & Expense: The Operating Fund ended with $106,585.06. A $45,000 transfer to the Capital Fund was made. Planning for future expansion will be starting and the Capital Fund will be evaluated to coordinate with phases of expansion. Overall the ending balance for the cemetery funds was looking good. January’s Operating Fund shows a total with the ending balance from last year, so all funds will balance to show accurate numbers at the end of February once they have processed through the January cycle. Cemetery Activities: A handout was reviewed and discussion of burials and headstone installations followed. Update on Opening & Closing Hours: Contracting the burials through Wilbert did not work out, so we will continue with City Staff doing the burials. A handout was viewed to discuss a new schedule for burials. The times and option of 2 burials in a day along with the times that should be considered overtime/after hours were discussed. There were some concerns with the early time being 9am and possibly being too early for most families. This can be discussed farther and decided upon. Part of the time frame has to be taken into consideration that staff is on summer hours and is off at 3pm, or on overtime for anything after 3pm when here for a burial that goes past 3pm. New Tent: Jim has ordered a new tent for graveside services. After the new tent is here, we will also look into having the older one repaired so that it is fully functional as a back-up or second tent for a set up. Landscape Contract Year in Review: The first year of the contracted cemetery maintenance has been completed. Everything went good, we came in under budget and are looking forward to renewing the contract for 2021. It has been a learning process to get everything all squared away with what we want and expect to be done and getting it clearly communicated into the Task Order to the crew. The DOC work program has been shut down since the Covid restrictions were implemented. We are not sure when or if the crews will be starting back up. We will be continuing the Cemetery Maint. Contract with Southern by Design (SBD) for 2021. Fee Schedule Discussion: Kris and Tawnya are working on getting everything organized and drafted onto a spreadsheet. They are meeting next week to get that going so we can have a draft ready to review at the next meeting. Discussion on 2021 Proposed Projects: We really need to start seriously planning for the expansion and opening a new section for burials. A discussion of some things that need to get started and other items of interest took place. Main points – Survey, design, phases, street signs. Consideration of having a second set up for burials was discussed. Volunteer Group: A lady has filled out the paperwork to try to organize a headstone cleaning project for the spring/summer. Her paperwork has been approved, but the communication has not been very consistent. A couple other people have shown interest in taking part of this and Tawnya forwarded their contact information to the lady that wanted to start and lead the project but has not heard back from either party. DeAnn stated that she would also be interested in this project and also suggested to reach out to school for Honor Society and or for Community Service Credit. Vote for Cemetery Board Chair: A vote for a new Chair person for the Board was needed since Skip Smith is no longer on the Board. It was recommended that Maxine be the new Chair person. Leilani made a motion to make Maxine the Chair of the Board, Allen seconded the motion; all were in favor so Maxine Jenft is now the Chair person of the Cemetery Board. Meeting Schedule: The meeting schedule for 2021 was set. February 23rd – April 20th – June 15th – September 21st – November 16th The next meeting will be held on April 20, 2021 at 2:30 pm. There being no further business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 4pm. Respectfully submitted by: Tawnya Post, Cemetery Coordinator