Changes made to clean up control of old Columbus cemetery

The Columbus City Cemetery next to Donner Park would come under the control of the City’s Board of Public Works and Safety under a plan given its first approvals by City Council this week.

Mary Ferdon, executive director of administration and community development for the city, told the council that control of the old cemetery, dating back to the early days of the community, has fallen into limbo.

The city Parks and Recreation Department has operated and maintained the cemetery in conjunction with a cemetery board, but the exact origin of that arrangement has been lost to history. Ferdon said that there are frequent difficult decisions that must be made, such as when conflicting family members struggle over who owns and can use a long-ago purchased lot in the cemetery. And it has been unclear how the parks department has the authority to make those decisions, according to City Attorney Alan Whitted.

Although a 1997 state law gave control over city-owned cemeteries to City Councils, the law also allowed the control to be transferred to other bodies, such as the board of works. But Columbus never made that change, according to city paperwork.

Ferdon said the parks department would continue to maintain the cemetery after the change. After it goes into place one of the first tasks will be to review the cemetery policy manual.

Ferdon said that funding for repairs has also been a problem. The city would like to set up an endowment to maintain the cemetery and its monuments, many of which honor the founders of the city.

Council gave its first approval to the plan Tuesday.