Sedalia Council Hears Update From Cemetery Director Waters

Monday night's City Council meeting led off with a strategic planning presentation by Cemetery Director Roger Waters.

Crown Hill Cemetery was founded in February of 1886, and as of September, there have been 24,585 burials there.

There have been 110 burials so far at Crown Hill since the start of 2021, and a total of 60 grave lots and 14 niches have been sold, Waters said.

His crew mows approximately 70 acres each week, and bagging grass and leaves, during the spring, summer and fall. And in the winter, they are straightening headstones and trimming trees, as well as performing maintenance on mowers and removing snow from the roadways when needed.

The Hebrew Cemetery located on South Grand is also owned by the City of Sedalia (since 2001). There are 234 people buried there.

“Calvary Cemetery is owned by the Catholic Church. It lies within Crown Hill. We maintain their grounds for them. They pay us a monthly fee, and all the opening and closing fees are collected just like they are in Crown Hill. Calvary was founded in 1868. There's 3,887 people buried there, through September of this year” Waters told the Council.

Future strategies for Crown Hill involve plotting out new areas for burials and news roads over the next five years, Waters said.

“We currently have approximately 2150 grave lots to sell that are still available to sell right now in the new addition area of the cemetery. Some of these are not the best lots, because they're next to roadway ditches and things like that, with water issues,” he said.

“I would also like to look at creating a cremation area, because our cremation numbers are rising,” Waters said, adding that it will allow for smaller grave sites. “We've got some areas within the cemetery that would work great for that, that's not yet been developed.”

The cost for putting in new roads will be included in the upcoming budget, he noted.

A Columbarium that was installed in November of 2019 has 64 niches and 31 have been sold through September. “I would like to order a new Columbarium in April. Estimated cost on that is around $20,000. They've gone up,” Waters said, adding that it will take at least eight months to get it delivered and installed.

“We are currently in the process of purchasing property west of the cemetery office, west of Veterans Memorial Drive. This transaction will probably not be completed until the end of November. Once that happens, we will start cleaning up the trash and underbrush that's within that area. That could be a suitable area for cremation burials,” Waters said.