Huntingburg Council: City decides to support Fairmount Cemetery

Huntingburg’s Fairmount Cemetery, like many cemeteries, is struggling to make ends meet.

With rising operational costs and a reluctance to increase the plot costs, Fairmount board member Andy Nass requested the city grant the old cemetery funding to assist it as it continued to seek stability.

“Basically, the cemetery is out of money,” Nass told the council.

He explained that over the years the cemetery had relied on the interest earned on invested funds but those market rates have dropped. With the loss of income and the increased expenses of maintaining the aged cemetery, the board was forced to use the reserves for large projects like repairing the asphalt paths.

“We have seen this coming for 10 to 15 years,” Nass explained. “But even back then we didn’t see a solution for it.”

He said the board had explored fundraisers and donations but to continue to operate, funds would need to be raised on a constant basis.

To help with the process, the cemetery recently reorganized as a public benefit corporation. It had operated for years as an association of lot owners. Each lot owner had a voting right as part owner of the cemetery. The move allows the board to operate more independently and seek help from other foundations and grant opportunities.

Nass said he had thought transferring the ownership of the cemetery to the city was the best solution. But now saw the new attempt to reorganize as a potential way to keep the cemetery private.

Along with changing the organization type, a new board was formed to lead Fairmount. The board includes Nass, the only holdover from the previous board, Roger Niehaus, Mayor Denny Spinner, Susan Kruger, Darren Kemp and Vicki Bretz. Steve Schwinghammer will be replacing Connie Evans, who passed away recently.

A group is also being formed, tentatively called Friends of Fairmount, to assist in advocating and fundraising for the cemetery. “A lot of cemeteries in the area have groups like that,” Nass said.

He added that in the past year, the cemetery has had several donations. Enough to get them through the year. “Without those donations, we would have zero in our accounts right now,” Nass said. “Currently, I think we have about 4, 5 or 6,000. That’s not very much money to run a cemetery.”

He said the board is seeking to partner with the city to cover future shortfalls. Annually, they expect to bring in about $16,000 from plot sales at $600 a piece. With expenses totaling about $25,000, Fairmount will continue to face a $10,000 deficit.

“We have been focusing on stabilizing,” Mayor Spinner explained to the council. “But there are expense that are always going to be there. For example, to mow the entire property takes 40 hours.”

He pointed out the importance of maintaining the cemetery that sits at the city’s south entrance. “It is one of the first things people see when they come in and it is the resting place for so many of our families,” Spinner said.

The goal of the group is to continue to raise funds to establish an endowment to support the cemetery for perpetuity. Only the earnings of the fund will be used for the cemetery’s operation and maintenance. “This is our try to keep it private,” Nass said.

If it doesn’t work, the city will likely have to consider taking over the cemetery down the road. But, as city attorney Phil Schneider pointed out at the council meeting, it can likely be ran more effectively and economically as a private entity

With the new designation as a public benefit, other foundations have been able to make donations. The Menke Foundation and the Dubois County Community Foundation have both come forward to help.

The council wondered if the township was assisting the cemetery. “No, they are not,” Nass said.

“I am in favor of supporting this,” Councilman Steve McPherron said, “as long as there is continued effort to get the township involved.”

Councilman Jeff Bounds said he felt that people generally hold all cemeteries as sacred. “My dad mowed the cemetery and he took a lot of pride in the way it looked,” he said. “I think it would be a good partnership.”

Councilman Glenn Kissling agreed and added he felt it was important to keep the cemetery separate from the city but he would like to see the township step up its support.

The cemetery board requested $5,000 for operational expenses this year. To facilitate 2017’s needs, the mayor requested the council consider increasing the allocation in the Riverboat Fund from $40,000 to $50,000. The amount is funded through special taxes collected by the Orange County casinos.

The council agreed to allocated $5,000 to assist the Fairmount Cemetery from funds available to the mayor and clerk-treasurer.

The council also approved advertising the increased amount, $50,000, allocated for the 2017 budget for the Riverboat Fund. The original $40,000 was slated to pay for ADA compliance projects.

The council also took the following actions:

-Approved a shared use agreement with the Indiana Department of Transportation so the city can install a signal at to alert motorists if a train is traveling through the city so they will know to use the overpass.

-Approved an amount not to exceed $25,000 for Garmong Construction to design the combined street department building and community safe space to be built on 19th Street. The city had hoped to receive a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to help pay for the building and therefore, had to design it to federal guidelines originally. The subsequently did not receive the grant and due to the state guidelines being less expensive to build, decided to redesign the building to those standards. The total will be split with the county as part of an agreement to construct the building as a secondary location to house the County’s Emergency Management Agency office. The city’s cost will be covered through the Stellar Community Endowment.

-Decided to hold a joint meeting with the Utility Rate Advisory Committee to consider the new net metering ordinance that would regulate the installation of renewable power sources in residences. The ordinance establishes a base of 1 percent of peak demand being offset by renewable power (about 30 homes), creates a $100 administrative fee, a $325 meter charge, and sets the usage fee at $5.18, the same as regular customers. The joint meeting will be held September 27 at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

-Heard the solar power park is generating power now. They flipped the metaphorical switch last week. It went off without a hitch and the 2 mW field was producing 1.835 mW, according to Energy Superintendent John Reutepohler. A ribbon cutting is planned for Monday, October 3 at 2 p.m.

–Heard a quarterly update from Dubois Strong Executive Director Ed Cole.