Cemetery district lists need for a mill levy increase

The manager of the Hill County Public Cemetery District said that unless voters approve a mill levy increase for the district some local cemeteries might  have to rely on volunteers for their upkeep.

Merrill Gray, the district manager, and cemetery district board members Tony Reum and Kathy Doney spoke to the Pachyderm Club Friday in Havre about the four-mill levy increase that will be on the ballot in the May 25 special election.

Gray said that unless voters approve the mill levy request, the district might look at focusing all its money and manpower on maintaining the Highland Cemetery on 9th Street West in Havre.

"If the mill levy does not pass we would probably be needing volunteers to take care of those cemeteries in the outlying district, the smaller ones," Reum said.

The requested mill levies would be in addition to the 2.6 mill the district already receives to care for nine cemeteries west to Inverness, north to Spring Coulee and south to Box Elder, Gray said. If passed, the increase would mean an additional $5.40 in property taxes for the owner of a home with a market value of 100,000 and $10.80 for a house valued at $200,000.

"We are facing some issues with our budget and the day-to-day operations of the cemetery district," Gray said.

Gray said the language in the resolution is crafted so if the district does not need to use all four additional mills in a given year it can reimburse the county for those not used or ask for fewer the next year.

A similar request for an additional 3 mills by the district was defeated by voters 53 percent to 47 percent in November's election.

Gray said the budget shortfall is due to a nationwide move away from full burials toward cremations. Aside from money from the county, the district gets the rest of its revenue from the sale of burial plots and headstones, but cannot charge the same amount for both, because burial of cremated remains requires less labor, he said.

"So it's left us without the same amount of revenue from year to year," Gray said.

The district is in dire need of extra money, so much so that they are no longer able to offer Saturday burials because they can't afford to pay employees overtime, he said. Gray added that if voters approve the mill levy, Saturday burials will resume.

The district has two full-time employees and hires three seasonal workers in the summer, Gray said. He added that this year the district will be able to hire only one worker. If the mill levy passes, the district will be able to hire all three.  

Last year, in order to make up for a $40,000 shortfall in revenue, the district had to sell off Sunset Memorial Gardens, a defunct private cemetery the District  acquired in 1974, Gray said. After 100 interments were brought into the city, the land was sold and the district was just able to fill that budget shortfall.

Highland Cemetery consumes most of the district's resources, Gray said.

Water, which the cemetery draws from the city for its lawn, is the district's biggest expense, he added. Gray said Highland Cemetery is one of the two largest consumers of water in the city of Havre.

"It's a resource that we need, of course, to maintain how the cemetery looks," Gray said.

He added that the district has put a request into the city for a reduction in the water rate, but it appears the request is unlikely to be approved.

Drilling a well that would be a source of water for Highland Cemetery has been considered, but the ground at the cemetery has too much alkali, Doney said.

The city has offered the district the use of an unused city well located near the Boys & Girls Club of the Hi-Line. However, in order to access the water, the district would have to invest in the infrastructure needed to run the water up through the football field onto Highland Cemetery, Gray said.

Another expense the District must cope with is aging equipment, such as the district's backhoe which is nearly 40 years old, Gray said.

"If that piece of equipment one day decides to break down, to break, it would be devastating for the cemetery to try and replace that," Gray said.

Next year, the district will also begin facing additional costs associated with the annexation of Highland Cemetery in January, he said.   

Though the cemetery is a tax exempt entity, it still has to pay assessments for the upkeep of Ninth Street West.

Beyond water and equipment, Doney said, there is a great deal to do in maintaining the cemeteries from weeding around headstones, to mowing the lawns and fixing fences.

"When it doesn't look nice you hear about it," she said.

Reum said the lack of information available to the public led to voters rejecting the request for a 3-mill levy in November.

"That was our problem," he said. "I don't think we had  enough information out to people not only what we needed but what would happen if we didn't get it."