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 Delta is 0.000204, and ours is 0.000171,” Deborah Wagner, secretary‑treasurer for the Deseret‑Hinkley district, told commissioners. Wagner said raising the district rate to 0.0004 — a figure discussed in the meeting — would require formal notice and the truth‑in‑taxation process and could impose a heavy burden on roughly 1,150 property taxpayers the district would have to notify.

Eliason and Wagner outlined basic budget comparisons: Eliason said the Delta Southern Oasis district maintains just over 10 acres of cemetery and has an annual budget he cited as about $109,888, and that Deseret‑Hinkley maintains just over 7 acres with an annual budget cited as $25,702. Using those figures, Eliason said Delta Southern Oasis receives roughly $10,752 per acre while Deseret‑Hinkley receives about $3,661 per acre, a difference he said makes improvements difficult.

Scott Bassett, representing the Delta Southern Oasis Cemetery Maintenance District, said his district had not been invited to prior discussions and asked to be included. "We didn't know anything about this until Trevor let us know," Bassett said, and he recommended a joint meeting so both boards could reach a shared recommendation for the county.

A county commissioner responded that the item was not on the agenda for formal action that day but asked Eliason to coordinate with county staff and the other district’s leadership. The commissioner said, "I want the two boards to come together to figure this out," and asked Eliason to consult with Christine Stanworth and county records staff so the groups could meet and report back.

No formal vote or consolidation motion was taken. Commissioners directed staff and district representatives to schedule a meeting for the two cemetery boards and county records staff to discuss options, including whether Deseret‑Hinkley could use its capital reserves to pay the loan and whether consolidation could take effect in a future tax year.

Community volunteers were repeatedly noted as essential to ongoing maintenance. Eliason said long‑time volunteers and board members are retiring and that the district struggles to recruit replacements given the low compensation. Wagner said the district’s longtime secretary would step down at the end of the year and that finding a volunteer to match that level of service “will be very, very difficult.”

The commission meeting record shows the parties agreed to pursue a joint meeting and return to the commission with options; the commission did not adopt any change that day.

Ending: Commissioners asked county staff to help schedule the joint meeting and to include county records personnel; district leaders agreed to coordinate and report back at a future commission meeting.