North Iowa Reporter

The Algona City Council discussed making changes to the city's code pertaining to municipal cemeteries during the board's meeting on Dec. 19.

One change proposed was to the language requiring cemetery board members to be residents inside Algona city limits. City Administrator Jacob Jaden said such requirements are common, but exceptions can be made.

"Outside city limits, you know, kind of one thing to consider with that is with the exception of our airport commission, which, you know, is regional by nature of all city boards and commissions, they do require that you live in the city," he said, adding that the reason for that was boards like the airport commission receive funding from property taxes.

"The cemetery is a little bit different because you don't have to live in the city to buy a plot," but plot owners also "do pay money towards a perpetual fund to help maintain the cemetery - the reality is that only covers a fraction of what it costs to operate and maintain the cemetery. You know, the vast majority of the expenses are paid by property taxes," Jaden added. "So, that's one consideration. So, if you want to allow being outside city limits... if they have a physical location in Algona, I think that kind of counteracts that."

Since local businesses also pay property taxes, Jaden said, that also represents a physical address in the city, Jaden explained, if someone were appointed to the cemetery board but didn't live within the city limits, "in the role for the sake of working for our funeral home and not as a resident, that that would be okay to do."

In addition to adjusting the living requirements for board members, the city also made clear that the only the cemetery superintendent or a designee/city employee could open or close the cemetery or any gravesite.

The board suggested changing the language of the cemetery board requirements to allow prospective members to live within 5 miles of the city or an employee of a funeral home within Algona. Were this change not made, some members of the council were concerned about being able to fill all seven spots of the cemetery board. In addition, it was suggested that if the council doesn't want to change the requirements to allow members who live outside the city limits, the cemetery board could be reduced from seven members to five.

After debating the issue, the council decided to change the living requirements to allow those who are employees at funeral homes within the city to join the cemetery board. In addition, the council voted to keep the cemetery board membership at seven. The council sent the ordinance to the cemetery board for its input, making slight adjustments to the language.