Deseret‑Hinkley cemetery board urges county to convene talks on combining cemetery districts

Matt Eliason, chairman of the Deseret‑Hinkley Cemetery District, told Millard County commissioners on Wednesday that his volunteer board cannot sustain cemetery operations under its current tax base and asked the commission to help bring the two local cemetery districts together to consider consolidation. "We can't make this work as a cemetery board. We 100% believe that commissioners need to take this on and combine the districts," Eliason said.

The request grew from a 2024 budget review in which Eliason said board members discovered the district’s small tax base left it unable to finance a new maintenance shed without a county loan. Eliason said the district would need to repay roughly $5,000 a year on the loan but that the small number of property taxpayers in Hinkley and Deseret would feel any increase more sharply than taxpayers in the larger Delta Southern Oasis district.

“The tax rate for…