Clearwater Cemetery District

CLEARWATER CEMETERY DISTRICT Clearwater Cemetery District Board Meeting May 09, 2024 6:30 PM, City Hall 1. Call to Order Board Member Erwin called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. 2. Roll Call Burt Ussery, Clearwater Mayor and Tim Erwin, Ninnescah Township, David Loos, Ohio Township, were present. The following city and staff members were present: Courtney Zollinger 3. Approval of Agenda MOTION: Ussery moved, Loos seconded the motion to approve the agenda as presented. Voted and passed unanimously. 3-0 4. Consent Agenda a. 4-11-24 Minutes b. 4-17-24 Minutes c. April Accounts Payable d. April Receipt Report e. May Payroll MOTION: Erwin moved, Loos seconded the motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Voted and passed unanimously. 3-0 5. Reports  Revenues YTD are at 51.1% of the budget and expenditures are at 4.9%.  Sedgwick County returned an executed copy of the Right of Way Easement and a check for $2,000.00 per the agreement.  Mike Weakley is out on medical leave. He has an appointment with his surgeon on Friday May 10th.  Public Works is filling in settled graves as they have time and taking care of any workorders that come in for the cemetery. There were monument markings for April.  Whitney Landscaping is still mowing until the end of May unless the Board wishes to extend its services.  1 ½ lots were sold in April CLEARWATER CEMETERY DISTRICT MOTION: Ussery moved, Loos seconded the motion to accept the reports. Voted and passed unanimously. 3-0 6. Business a. Avenue of Flags - American Legion came to Mike and stated they no longer want to put up the flags at the circle and they will not be having a ceremony at the Cemetery this year (Memorial Day). This year the ceremony will take place at a church. The American Legion said they are getting too old and can’t put up the flag poles or flags any longer. In the past the American Legion would get the poles from Clearwater Public Works (where they are stored), put them up at the circle and raise the flags. The Cemetery would then take the flags down and the flag poles and store them again for the following year. Since the American Legion will no longer be holding a ceremony at cemetery does the Board wish to put up the poles and flags and have them on display? The Board discussed and agreed the flags should still go up. Ussery offered to contact the local Boy Scouts and Lions Club to see if they would volunteer to put them up. If the civic groups are unable they agreed to ask members of Clearwater Public Works to set them up. MOTION: Loos moved, Erwin seconded the donate $200 to the civic group who puts up the flag poles and flags and if they don’t to pay up to $200 for members of public works to put them up. Voted and passed unanimously. 3-0 b. Grounds Maintenance 2024 Whitney Landscaping has been hired to mow until the end of May. Sexton, Mike Weakley, is still out on medical leave and is unable to get back to work yet. Weakley has two potential seasonal candidates for mowing the cemetery grounds, but at this point we don’t have information about when he will be able to train them. Whitney Landscaping is available to mow the grounds for the remaining mowing season for a seasonal price of $33,300 for all 4 cemeteries. With the adjusted salary rates approved by the Board there has been $67,000 allocated to salaries for the year (Budgeted 57,400). In the 2024 budget there was a reserve identified in the amount of $400,000 that can be used to make up the difference. CLEARWATER CEMETERY DISTRICT The Board discussed and determined that the sexton has not been released yet and restrictions are unknown at this time. In order to secure a contract with Whitney they needed to make a decision. MOTION: Ussery moved, Loos seconded extend Whitney Landscaping’s services until the end of this year. Voted and passed unanimously. 3-0 c. Future Cemetery Layout The board discussed ideas for the new northern section of the cemetery. The consensus was to hold off on a new building since there is not city sewer available yet. It doesn’t make sense to dedicate a section of the property to a lagoon if city sewers will be extended in the future. They discussed the idea of a columbaria or a mausoleum to be added to the new section but no plots as of yet. There are still 104 full lots available in the 3rd addition. Erwin stated that the Board shouldn’t need to open a new section until there less than 50 lots available. Get quotes on trees to go around the property from Woods Tree Farm, get quotes for columbaria and ask Logan Mills to attend the next meeting to discuss a layout. d. 2025 Budget Zollinger shared the state budget timeline with the Board. The County Clerk must be notified by July 20th if the District plans to exceed the RNR. The board will bring back plans for 2025 at the next meeting to be discussed. e. Other Business – no other business 7. Executive Session – no executive session 8. Comments – No comments 9. Adjournment With there being no further business MOTION: Erwin moved, Ussery seconded to adjourn the meeting. Voted and passed unanimously. 3-0 Meeting adjourned at 7:25 p.m.