It’s dire straits for local cemetery

Lacking operating funds, group reaches out to city and town

By Ed Nadolski

Editor in Chief

When Bev Gill talks about the future of the Burlington Cemetery, she doesn’t mince words.

“We’re broke,” she said Tuesday. “Things need to be taken care of and there isn’t anything in the checkbook. You can’t run a cemetery without money.”

The Burlington Cemetery Association, which has limped along for more than a decade since a former treasurer was convicted of embezzling much of the association’s treasury, has hit bottom financially, said Gill, who serves as secretary of the association.

There are nowhere near enough funds – including the paltry interest generated by it’s perpetual care fund – to tackle the long list of maintenance, repair and development needs at the cemetery along Highway W just west of Brown’s Lake.

“It’s a sad story,” Gill said, “and these are our loved ones (buried) out there.”

The situation is so desperate that Cemetery Association members are turning to the local municipalities for assistance. Most of the cemetery is in the city, however, a small portion falls in the township.

Cemetery association President Earl Vorpagel has approached officials in the city and town of Burlington seeking $15,000 from each, since it serves both communities.

The Town Board denied that request at Thursday’s meeting. Town officials simply said they don’t have the money to give.

City is receptive

However Mayor Bob Miller said he’s inclined to help the cemetery association so long as the City Council is on board with the idea.

“I think the city needs to help out,” he said.

Whether that results in a monetary donation or some other form of assistance remains to be seen.

“Nothing is off the table at this point,” Miller said, noting the city could consider offering services such as snowplowing, mowing and brush removal to help defray maintenance costs.

“The (city) council needs to get a handle on the situation to really understand the needs out there,” Miller said.

He expects Vorpagel to appear before the council in January or February.

Miller said he’s impressed the cemetery association has been able to operate for so long given the dire straights they faced when its funds were stolen.

“I applaud them for going this far without having to cry ‘uncle,’” he said.

Both Miller and Gill said they believe if the cemetery association dissolves for lack of funds, the responsibility for the cemetery then falls on the city and town.

Miller said he’d much rather see the association survive.

There is, however, another option but Miller doesn’t like it.

According to the state statute governing the cemetery association, it does have the power to levy a tax through the communities that benefit from the cemetery – namely the city and town.

“That’s a whole can of worms I don’t want to open,” Miller said. “The problem I have with that concept is how broad is the tax going to be and who is it going to affect.”

Miller said he’d rather see all other options exhausted before the association would consider going that route.

Repairs sorely needed

A visit to the cemetery Tuesday revealed crumbling, potholed roads and a dilapidated chapel in need of extensive repairs in the older section of the cemetery and a lack of shade trees in the new section.

Gill said the financial problems that began with the stolen funds compounded in recent years as interest income on the $49,000 perpetual care fund plunged – a side effect of the sluggish economy – and the need to address long-delayed maintenance projects grew even more urgent.

Because the city has a large Catholic population and two Catholic parishes that operate their own cemeteries, the cemetery association faces a challenge in serving the needs of other community members. And a recent change in veterans’ burial benefits has prompted more veterans to opt for burial at Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery near Union Grove, Gill said.

Those factors, when coupled with the deteriorating condition of the cemetery, make it all the more difficult to sell burial plots, she added.

It’s a vicious cycle that won’t change unless the cemetery association can find the funds to address the maintenance needs.

“If the town and city don’t give us money, I don’t know what we’ll do,” Gill said.