The City of Two Rivers is clarifying a few things about its Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund.
The city used to put flowers on the grave sites belonging to people who had passed away prior to 1992.
However, in 1996, the City Council unanimously approved an ordinance that transferred all of the $600,000 from that account into use for capital projects.
This includes installing a new roof on City Hall.
However, the city has continued to pay for flowers for people buried before 1992, with the funding coming from property tax dollars.
City Manager Kyle Kordell shared the approved ordinance from 1996, which stated that the Council should “continually monitor and update cemetery fees, to minimize the need for general taxpayer support.”
The public was recently asked in a survey about how they would like to see property tax dollars spent, and flowers for gravesites were low on the list of priorities.
The City is looking into the program and how it can be adjusted moving forward.
Specifically, Kordell says the City Council is discussing reducing the amount of taxpayer dollars that is used on beautifying grave sites.
He assured us that the program is not going away, just being restructured.
