Cemetery Board Hears Report On Memorial Day Activities
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Memorial Day went well at Oakwood Cemetery despite a few issues, the Board of Regents heard Thursday afternoon at its meeting. President Dave Baumgartner said, “I want to take a moment and say, being the president, I drove through on Memorial Day, came through, and the place looked fantastic. (Sexton) Hal (Heagy) and his crew make this place look gorgeous. It looked fantastic as I drove through it on Memorial Day. You deserve some recognition, you and your staff, no question.” Heagy said his employees had it ready in four days, and luckily the rain held off. “Memorial Day went off really well. We did have some burials, but that’s expected. We did 25 this last month,” he said, noting that burials have picked up. Heagy said there were a couple of issues that came up at the Memorial Day event Monday and he will go and talk to the American Legion Post about it. “These guys are getting older. It’s getting tougher for them. We didn’t get much notification. We assumed they were doing it. I finally called down. They didn’t show up until late. That’s a paid holiday for us,” Heagy said. Two of his crew members volunteered to work Memorial Day to park cars. “We’re here at 7:30, the band started at 10:30 and the Legion showed up at a quarter till 10,” Heagy said. “We don’t have a lot in this except keeping the place nice, but everybody assumes we do the flags.” Common Council representative to the Board of Regents Jerry Frush asked who furnishes the sound system for the service. Heagy said the Legion does. “This is all theirs,” he said. “It could be upgraded a little bit as far as that goes,” Frush said. “Yep, I hear it every year,” Heagy responded. “Sometimes it takes them two weeks to find out who’s storing it.” He said the cemetery has nothing to do with the placement of flags on veterans’ graves. Little Tigers Football came out to Oakwood Saturday and placed them, and there were a ton of them and Little Tigers “did great,” Heagy said, but they ran out of flags. “No Legion guys,” he added. “I had very few, and trust me, I take a lot of heat on this.” He said that’s fine, but it’s an emotional issue and if someone’s spouse doesn’t get a flag they get upset. He had a few. “What we do, after Little Tigers goes through, if they give me flags, then my mow crew keeps them between their legs. As they’re mowing, if they see a vet, they (give) them a flag,” Heagy explained. He said it wasn’t too bad. “We got a lot of compliments, which is very nice, and I passed them on to the boys because they do work hard. Other than that, not too many problems,” he said. There was a big crowd at the Memorial Day service, he said. In other business, Heagy: • Said the 2017 budget process is starting, and he’s meeting with Mayor Joe Thallemer Tuesday to review what he’s doing for it. • Reminded the board that nothing is supposed to be stuck in the ground at the cemetery. The monuments include an extra foot on each side for items to be placed on the them as the cemetery mows every week. “I took out two truck loads” after Memorial Day, he said. Heagy said he’ll keep those items, like shepherd’s hooks, for about six months for people to claim and take back if they want. • Reported the cemetery will get its standard work truck this month. It’s already been approved. He’s also planning to order a dump truck. He has a price for the chassis but is waiting for the bed price to make sure it fits with what he has budgeted for it. Both the work and dump trucks are Chevrolets. • Said the spring flowers arrived and are planted. The staff is trying to keep them watered so that they don’t die in this “drought,” he said. • Reported he’s still working on the columbarium in cremation garden 2. He said he’s got most of the engineering items he needs, but hasn’t had time to sit down and draw it. He hopes to do that in June, and with part-time helping coming in he should be able to get it done. • Announced three of his four part-time summer workers start Monday. The fourth can’t begin until Wednesday as he’s a teacher.
