Bill No. 83-17

Ordinance No. 319

AN ORDINANCE REVISING, EXTENDING, AND UPDATING THE OPERATING RULES, REGULATIONS, AND POLICIES REGARDING THE CITY CEMETERY, AND CONTAINING OTHER RELATED PROVISIONS.

WHEREAS, Section 79.430, Revised Statutes of Missouri, provides that "the board of aldermen shall have power to purchase, receive, and to hold real estate, as herein mentioned, for public cemeteries, either within or without the city, within a distance of three miles thereof, and the city and its officers shall have jurisdiction over the said cemeteries wherever located; provided that no such cemetery shall exceed eighty acres in one body; and

WHEREAS, the same section of Missouri statutes also provides that "the board of aldermen shall provide for the survey, platting, grading, fencing, ornamenting and improving of all the cemetery ground, and the avenues leading thereto, owned by the city, and may construct walks and protect ornamental trees, and provide for paying the expenses therefor; and

WHEREAS, the same section of Missouri statutes also provides that "the board of aldermen may make rules and pass ordinances imposing penalties and fines, regulating, protecting, and governing city cemeteries, the owners of lots therein, visitors thereto, and punish trespassers therein, and the officers of such city shall have as full jurisdiction and power in the enforcing of such rules and ordinances as though they related to the city itself, and

WHEREAS, Section 79.440, Revised. Statutes of Missouri, states "the board of aldermen may limit the number of lots owned by the same person at the same time, and may prescribe rules for enclosing, adorning and erecting monuments, tombstones and ornaments on cemetery lots, and prohibit any improper adornment thereof; but no religious test shall be made to the ownership of the lots, or the burials had therein, or for the ornamentation of graves or lots; then, therefore

BE IT ORDAINED BY THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF HIGBEE, MISSOURI, AS FOLLOWS:

Section 1. Supervision. The day to day management of the affairs pertaining to the city cemetery shall be under the supervision of the Superintendent of Utilities, who is hereby designated ex officio Sexton of the cemetery.

Section 2. Duties of Sexton. The Superintendent of Utilities shall, as ex officio Sexton, be custodian and in charge of the cemetery, and shall supervise the opening and closing of all graves to be situated therein, and shall further supervise the erection of all tombstones, monuments, footstones, plot corner markers, and grave or plot ornamentation of every kind, provided that no religious test shall be made in regard to the same.

Section 3. Size of Lots. All lots offered for sale within the city cemetery shall measure twenty feet square in size, and be composed of eight individual gravespaces.

Section 4. Sale Price of Lots. The Sexton is hereby authorized, subject to provisions of this ordinance, to sell lots or gravespaces therein, at the sale prices to be determined by the board of aldermen. At the discretion of the Sexton, individual gravespaces may be sold separately, and in such sections and lots within the cemetery as may, in his opinion, support the orderly expansion of the cemetery.

Section 5. Cemetery Lots; How Conveyed. As provided in Section 79.440, Revised Statutes of Missouri, lots within the cemetery shall be conveyed by certificates, signed by the Mayor, countersigned by the City Clerk, under the seal of the city, specifying that the purchaser to whom the same is issued is the owner of the lot described therein by numbers, as laid down upon the official map or plat of such cemetery made by the city, for the purpose of interment, and such certificate shall vest in the purchaser, his or her heirs or assigns, a right in fee simple to such lots, for the sole purpose of interment, under the regulations of the Board of Aldermen. Such certificates shall be entitled to be recorded in the office of the Recorder of Deeds of Randolph County, Missouri, without further acknowledgement, and such description of lots shall be deemed and recognized as sufficient description thereof.

Section 6. Limitation on Lots Owned. It shall be unlawful for any person to own more than three (3) lots within the cemetery, provided that this limitation shall not apply to any lot the same shall have filled.

Section 7. Limits on Ornamentation. It shall be unlawful for anyone to install or erect any monument, tombstone, footstone, or lot ornament of any type, without having first obtained the approval of the Sexton as to the physical location of the same; and it shall be unlawful for any person, undertaker or funeral home, or seller or installer of monuments or other types of grave ornaments, to install the same on any other lot than that owned by the person purchasing the same, or on the lot on which is buried the person whose grave such monument or ornament is to locate or ornament.

Section 8. Opening and Closing Graves. All graves shall be at least five feet in depth and shall be placed in rows at the direction of the Sexton; and it shall be unlawful for anyone closing a grave to leave more than six inches of fill dirt above the surface of the ground, or to leave any excess dirt from said grave at any location within the cemetery other than the Sexton may, from time to time, prescribe.

Section 9. Copings, Fences, Walls Prohibited. It shall be unlawful for anyone to erect above any grave or around any lot or space within the cemetery, any coping, fence, or wall.

Section 10. Placing of Flowers and Shrubs. It shall be unlawful for anyone to plant or set out any flowers or ornamental shrubs that will, when mature, extend beyond the confines of the space or lot owned by that person, and which may conflict with the enjoyment of adjoining lots or blocks of lots and their owners.

Section 11. Planting of Trees. It shall be unlawful for anyone to plant any tree, evergreen, or any plant of deep root without the written permission of the Sexton, in order that such roots shall not damage any graves or ornaments on adjoining or nearby lots.

Section 12. Notice of offending Items. Whenever the Sexton shall find that any monument, tombstone, footstone, or other ornament, or any planted flower or shrub placed upon any lot becomes an obstruct- ion to the use of the public drives, alleys, walks, or public ornaments in the cemetery, or otherwise interferes with the use and enjoyment of adjoining lots, he shall immediately notify the owner of the lot from which such obstruction or interference shall originate ordering the abatement of such obstruction or interference; and upon the lot owner's failure or refusal to remove the same within ten days of being notified, the Sexton shall proceed to remove the offending obstruction.