----- Original Message -----
From: Fred Barkes
To: Helen & Bill Cutshaw ; Nancy & Ed Wilson
Cc: mark davis ; HELEN WILDERMUTH ; helen
Sent: Sunday, May 09, 2004 4:51 PM
Subject: Cemetery renewal on pace
Saturday, May 08, 2004
Cemetery renewal on pace
By Marla Miller
mmiller(a)therepublic.com
Columbus Township Trustee Fred Barkes continues to make good on his commitment
to properly care for the township's abandoned cemeteries - and set an example for
other trustees.
Barkes is spending money to have the township's five abandoned cemeteries
completely restored and he is paying for electromagnetic conductivity surveys at each
burial grounds to find unmarked graves and buried headstones.
The final bill will be about $55,000, but at no added expense to taxpayers.
Last October, Barkes and the Columbus Township Trustee Advisory Board
established a "rainy day fund", and set it up to draw on leftover money in the
township, township assistance, fire and cumulative fire funds, to pay for cemetery
restoration.
So far, Barkes has used only excess money in the general township and township
assistance funds.
State law did not allow the township to draw on the fund until January, and it
will be dissolved at the end of 2004, Barkes said. It was a quick, legal way to
re-appropriate existing funds to fix the long-neglected cemeteries.
"All this money we're spending is out of surplus," Barkes said.
"All this is based off of unused funds from previous years. Each year, we set a
budget and monies that don't get used go into the general fund."
For years, cemetery maintenance has been listed as a line-item expense in the
general township fund, and this year, routine upkeep such as mowing is still being paid
out of that fund, Barkes said.
Separate fund planned
However, as the board builds the 2005 budget, the plan is to establish a
separate cemetery maintenance fund, Barkes said. The fund will cover all aspects of
cemetery care, including mowing, cleaning and aligning tombstones, and things such as
fencing and signage.
"It's the same allocation, but it puts it in its own separate
bucket," he said. "In the past, anything left (in the line item) reverted to the
general fund. By setting up a cemetery maintenance fund, it will stay in that fund."
It has been Barkes' initiative that got the project rolling, said Ken
Greenlee, advisory board president.
Barkes took office in January 2003 and attended an Indiana Township
Association conference last summer, where he learned more about maintaining township
cemeteries and the laws that govern their care.
"We as an advisory board only counsel and monitor what's going on,
but it's become a priority issue with township government," Greenlee said.
"We intend to continue it until it's completed and maintain them to the level of
the law."
Laws regarding township cemeteries continue to evolve, and Columbus Township
plans to lead by example, Greenlee said.
"It's long overdue," he said. "We intend to be a model for
the county. Fred and I are of the thought there are two actions: performance and excuses.
On something as sensitive as this, there's going to be public pressure."
Greenlee noted that each township's annual financial report is public.
"If you've got money sitting in a fund, you can use it," he
said. "We just adjusted our budget to make these kinds of things happen. You can
change the bottom line if you follow the proper process."
Quality restoration
Before the "rainy day fund," Barkes spent about $5,000 he had
allotted for cemetery maintenance to refurbish 50 stones at Carter Chapel Cemetery on U.S.
31, north of Columbus. He hired cemetery-restoration professionals Helen Wildermuth of
Martinsville and Mark Davis of Hartford City to do the work last fall.
They worked throughout the winter and spring at Carter, Lambert, Gladstone and
Garden City cemeteries and are nearly finished. Mount Pleasant Cemetery is the only one
left to do.
Wildermuth and Davis, who work throughout the state, said it is unusual for a
trustee to authorize the work all in one year.
"He's among the few that have been able to do that," Wildermuth
said. "Fred is at the forefront of cemetery restoration, as far as the ones we've
done."
Davis said he knows of only two other townships in Indiana that have all of
their township-controlled cemeteries restored.
"Fred's done a good job, he's really kind of on the cutting
edge," he said. "In one year, to go from having none done to all of them done
really speaks well of Fred and Columbus."
Barkes said he has heard many positive comments from the public. Two women
personally stopped to thank him after they found relatives in Carter Cemetery thanks to
Davis and Wildermuth's updated documentation.
"People are just really amazed at the difference," he said.
"When you compare before and after photos, it's like night and day."
The county's other trustees and advisory boards also could establish
"rainy day" or separate cemetery maintenance funds, but they have to have the
means and the desire.
"It's easier for Columbus Township because we are a bigger township
and generate more tax revenue," Barkes said. "But I don't know why they
don't. They should. Statute even allows us to generate a cemetery maintenance tax.
"You've got to start somewhere. The law says to do it. I'm doing
what I'm supposed to be doing - my job."
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