March 2021 | Vol. 01 Iss. 01
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CITY LOOKS FOR WAYS TO EXPAND CEMETERY CENTERVILLE CEMETERY IS FULL by Linda Petersen | The City Journals
Byline
Although the Centerville cemetery appears to have plenty of space, it’s actually full. The city is trying to find solutions to accommodate residents’ needs. Photo by Roger V. Tuttle
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CENTERVILLE—A walk through the city cemetery today would show plenty of available gravesites. More than half, 2,656 to be exact, are unoccupied. But looks can be deceiving: every last site of the almost-7 acres has actually been sold and the cemetery, which has been around since pioneer times, is full. It’s a problem that city officials have been wrestling with for several years. Such measures as enacting a now-repealed ordinance prohibiting upright headstones to ensure crews access to find empty sites and the approval of a new niche columbarium wall (see story pg. X) are partial solutions at best. “I’ve always felt all along that we don’t chase more spaces (at the current cemetery), that we see if we can’t find additional cemetery elsewhere,” Mayor Clark Wilkinson said at a recent city council work session where options were discussed. “If we can’t, then we’re done,” Wilkinson said. All present agreed the best solution would be to develop a new cemetery but it’s a costly proposal and each option has issues. One possibility would be to construct a cemetery on the east bench on land already owned by the city in what is known as the bowl area. However, the bowl is used heavily by the recreation community and a cemetery there could face opposition. Some council members are also worried that if the city built anything there it would pave the way for other development – something they do not want to see happen. Currently the city does not allow construction on the hillside to protect the wildland urban interface. Another
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