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Council discusses steep increases for nonresident cemetery fees and options to fund perpetual care
Summary
During a lengthy June 9 work-session discussion, Mona City Council explored raising nonresident cemetery lot and perpetual-care fees, adding capital-improvement charges, and using residency definitions tied to utility accounts to protect resident access.
Mona City Council spent a significant portion of its June 9 work session debating cemetery pricing and options to build a perpetual-care reserve, with staff and members proposing higher nonresident charges and a single consolidated fee structure.
Staff member (speaker 2) said the cemetery fund is operating in the red and presented a range of nonresident fees from neighboring cities (Nephi: $1,300; Sanpete/Richfield examples cited) as benchmarks. “This year we're, we're in the negative almost $8,500,” Committee member 5 said when explaining why the council should consider raising nonresident charges to protect resident access and pay for future expansion and maintenance.
Council discussion included several concrete proposals: staff floated a sample nonresident-lot fee of $2,000, one councilor suggested $2,500, and others proposed substantially higher figures as a disincentive to nonresident purchases. Members also discussed consolidating perpetual-care and opening/closing charges into a single fee and adding a capital-improvement surcharge to fund future expansion.
On residency definition, members agreed the code should treat a resident as someone using city services (for example, holding a city utility account) rather than simply sharing a ZIP code. The council directed staff to verify how residency is defined in code and to return with recommended fee amounts, residency criteria, and a proposal that includes perpetual-care and potential capital-improvement fees.
