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Neighbors urge alternate cemetery access; council asks staff to explore interim bike-path options
Summary
Residents and staff discussed routing heavy equipment around an existing bike path that currently crosses a cemetery; council asked staff to prepare alternative access and temporary bike-path fixes, deferring final cemetery-road decisions until cemetery planning next year.
Mitchell — Residents near the municipal cemetery urged the city to find an alternate access point for cemetery operations so the newly constructed bike path can remain a buffer between recreational uses and burial grounds.
A neighborhood speaker (Speaker 1) asked the council to "find another way to access that cemetery" and said the bike path “could provide that buffer” between the golf course and cemetery, but asked whether heavy equipment could avoid crossing the path. Council asked Jason (Speaker 3) to describe site operations; Jason said heavy-duty utility vehicles move dirt back and forth, payloader machines break up piles and trucks are used when needed, and moving material into tree areas would require crossing the bike path in some scenarios.
Kevin Thurman, who said he had historical knowledge of the cemetery staging, told the council the cemetery has required a dirt spoil pile “long before the houses were there,” and recommended phased development: build graves nearest current roads first and expand west over decades as Mitchell grows. Thurman and other commenters suggested dropping an access road from the bike path and tying into existing maintenance roads so the bike path need not route through the cemetery center.
Council members and staff discussed interim fixes: Speaker 6 asked staff to explore different options and to return with preliminary designs; Speaker 16 said cemetery plans are budgeted for next year and recommended a short-term connection "with the path of least resistance" to restore continuity for cyclists until a final cemetery-road plan is adopted. Staff and neighbors agreed on pursuing an interim repair or temporary alignment that would minimize disturbance and later allow the bike path to be converted into a cemetery road if required.
No formal action was taken; council directed staff to develop options and present them at a future meeting. Speaker 6 reiterated, "We're not making any decisions here — we're just... exploring options," and council agreed to bring preliminary designs back to the next meeting cycle.
