Council approves cemetery management software; volunteers to collect handwritten records for migration

The council authorized a contract with SemSite to digitize cemetery records for all three municipal cemeteries. Councilors reviewed the contract line items and were told several services are listed at $0 because they were discounted or optional add‑ons; the core data migration will require manual work. Tess Taylor and the city’s staff explained the city’s cemetery records are a mix of handwritten registers, note cards and scattered digital files and that the company will provide a template of required fields. City staff and cemetery committee volunteers will collect data on site, and staff said volunteers or interns will likely walk graves, photograph markers, and enter information into an Excel template for upload to SemSite. “We we will have someone literally going to every gravestone and, and then putting those data points,” a staff member said, describing a manual walk‑through to verify names, dates and plot locations. Committee members and community volunteers who already maintain veteran flag programs have expressed interest in helping. Councilors discussed whether historic documents would be preserved; staff said original deeds and early plot maps will be retained where legally required and that archival materials identified during digitization will be preserved. The city will use the software for all three municipal cemeteries to create an online searchable database. The council approved the related purchase as part of the consent agenda, and staff said they will return with implementation timetables and requests for assistance from the cemetery commission and volunteers.