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Cemetery board weighs adding columbarium, outlines Memorial Day program
Summary
Board members discussed installing a small columbarium near the gazebo (estimates around $15,000–$20,000), compared resident versus nonresident pricing, and planned Memorial Day honors for a World War I veteran. No funding decision was made; staff will return with pricing and design options.
Board members spent a large portion of the meeting discussing options for cremation niches (a columbarium), how to fit them into the cemetery landscape and program logistics for Memorial Day.
Chair Beverly Thomas presented photos and details of a small columbarium used in nearby Manti and suggested starting with a modest bank of niches near the gazebo as an interim option. "If we just put a small bank of them on this other corner, it's kinda set back a little bit," Thomas said. She told members that a Manti installation had cost about $15,000 and that a larger, more permanent columbarium could run in the $15,000–$20,000 range; Thomas said she would bring more detailed information to the next meeting.
Members compared prices and features. In the discussion speakers mentioned per-niche figures that varied by community and vendor: some references in the transcript cite $1,300 for a resident niche and $1,700 for a nonresident niche on certain models, while other references compared total structure costs. Board members asked whether niches could be integrated into headstones or sold as smaller family plots; they also discussed engraving, security bolts on niche faces, drainage and elevation concerns, and whether local mortuaries or the city would help notify residents if niches become available.
No formal motion to purchase or budget funds for a columbarium was made at the meeting. The chair asked staff to gather more information on elevation, drainage, design, pricing and monument-company constraints and to present that data at a future meeting. The board also finalized elements of its Memorial Day program — including a speaker (retired Sergeant James Matt Amos), TAPS, flag raising and volunteer roles — and agreed to continue planning ahead of the May event.
The board scheduled its next meeting for April 9 at 10:00 a.m. and will revisit columbarium pricing and program details then.
