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Residents raise concerns about cemetery records and mistaken grave openings
Summary
At public participation, resident Dave Myers presented documents and photographs showing inconsistent cemetery records and said a Sexton opened the wrong grave; he urged the city to correct records before further interments to avoid digging into occupied graves.
During the public comment period, resident Dave Myers described multiple discrepancies in the city cemetery's burial records and said gravediggers opened a space that conflicted with an existing headstone.
Myers said he received a record from the Sexton that listed occupants and birth dates in ways that do not match headstones on site. Regarding a recent opening, he told the board the gravediggers reported hitting parts of a casket in the opened space. "We know these records are wrong," Myers said, and urged the city to fix records before additional burials take place. He also said he has text-message exchanges and documentary evidence to support his account.
Mayor Felley and other aldermen acknowledged the concern and said staff would follow up. City staff did not take formal action on the record correction during the meeting but heard the concern and received the documents Myers offered.
Next steps: City staff and the Sexton need to review records Myers submitted, confirm any mapping errors, and report back to the board with corrective actions to avoid future misidentification of grave spaces.
