Cemetery Board Discusses Bike, Pedestrian Path Proposal
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Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
Oakwood Cemetery Board of Regents discussed a proposal Thursday for a bike and pedestrian plan to be at the cemetery. The board previously heard the proposal during its Oct. 3 meeting from Fred Helfrich, Winona Lake-Warsaw Ride-Walk committee advocacy chair. The proposal was to put a path for pedestrians and bicyclists behind the cemetery. Hal Heagy, cemetery sexton, said he would support creating a path for bicyclists and pedestrians on the west side of the cemetery. Heagy said creating a path behind the cemetery could attract vandalism. Ellen Hoffer and Arthur Brown, cemetery board members, said they both supported the idea of creating the path at the west end of the cemetery. Heagy will look into getting cost estimates for a bike and pedestrian path. The board heard there were 21 burials in October, nine lots sold and five burial deeds were signed. In other business, Heagy informed the board two bids for new columbariums the cemetery board reviewed at its Oct. 3 meeting are void. The board reviewed bids from Patten Monument Co. and DeGraff Memorials at its October meeting. It approved awarding the bid for the columbariums to DeGraff Memorials. However, during Thursday’s meeting, Heagy said he was not aware of state statute requirements that state if a project is more than $25,000 a licensed architect must present specifications to bidders. Heagy said he accepts the responsibility for the state statute not being followed. Heagy said a licensed architect will provide specifications to bidders and the project will be re-bid. Kevin DeGraff, DeGraff Memorials, and Tony Lloyd, Patten Monuments, who bid on the projects, attended Thursday night’s meeting. DeGraff said when he originally bid on the project he gave Heagy the number of burial niches, where they needed to fit and indicated he would bid on a grey and black granite. “We put together the best columbarium we could according to the specs that we were given including the grey granite and the black granite and that’s what we submitted at the very best price we could offer,” DeGraff said. “I feel like I put together everything Hal asked and I understand the state statute that must be followed, but I want to be clear apples to apples were compared, just from different orchards,” he said. Tony Lloyd, Patten Monuments, said he did not feel the specifications were provided equally to both bidders. Kevin Planck, board president, said the board is in agreement there is discrepancy in the bidding process and will make it right by requiring a licensed architect to provide specifications for the project. Lloyd said he provided Heagy with a granite color he would use that was agreed on by he and Heagy. Lloyd said Heagy did not write down the color. Lloyd said he felt it was not a fair bid because both bidders did not use the same granite supplier for the bid. Lloyd said Heagy gave him a photo off the Internet that showed the columbarium specifications. “I take blame because I gave you the picture of the columbarium off the Internet and where I went wrong was I wanted black and white granite with black doors so I told you incorrectly,” Heagy said. Heagy said the project will be re-bid with specifications from an architect.
