[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Fitchburg as §§ 4-1 through 4-9 of the 1965 Code. Amendments noted where applicable.]
The Cemetery Department shall be under the supervision of the Trustees of the Public Burial Grounds.
A. 
The Board of Trustees for the Public Burial Grounds shall consist of five members.
[Amended 3-20-2007 by Ord. No. 035-07]
B. 
The Mayor shall each year in January, subject to confirmation by the Council, appoint one person to fill such office for the term of three years.
C. 
The Trustees shall serve without compensation.
[Amended 6-3-2014 by Ord. No. 100-2014]
On or before the first Monday in February of each year, the Board of Trustees for the Public Burial Grounds shall meet and organize and choose a Chair and Clerk. The Clerk shall keep a record of all proceedings. The Board shall, with the approval of the Mayor, also appoint a Superintendent, who shall be under the direction and control of the Board and be responsible for the care and maintenance of all public cemeteries.
The Board of Trustees for Public Burial Grounds shall make such bylaws and regulations, consistent with laws and ordinances, as it may deem expedient in matters relating to public burial grounds and cemeteries, subject to the approval of the Council and the Mayor.
All deeds and all subsequent deeds of public burial lots made by the owners thereof shall be recorded by the Board of Trustees for Public Burial Grounds in suitable books of record, which shall be open to the inspection of the public at all reasonable times.
The Board of Trustees for Public Burial Grounds shall have the right to make expenditures of appropriations made by the Council for the construction of paths and avenues in such cemeteries and public burial grounds and for the planting of and embellishing them with trees, shrubs, flowers and other rural ornaments, or any other purpose of construction, maintenance or improvement therein.
A. 
The City Treasurer shall maintain a fund, called the "Cemetery Lots, Endowment Fund," for the investment of all money or property received for the preservation, care, improvement and embellishment of any public burial place in the City or of any burial lot in such a burial place, and shall add such money to such fund whenever the invested amount thereof shall reach $500, and shall credit the net income of such fund annually to the Cemetery Department appropriation.
B. 
The City Treasurer shall receive and have the care and custody of all sums of money paid by persons for the perpetual care of lots in any of the City cemeteries and give the vouchers of the City therefor. Moneys so received shall constitute a special fund to be known as the "Cemetery Fund for Perpetual Care of Lots." He or she shall pay the amount of interest realized thereon to the Cemetery Lots Endowment Fund and shall notify, when occasion requires, the Trustees of the Public Burial Grounds of all such payments so made on account of lots and graves, together with a description of the lots and graves on account of which such payments are made. He or she shall annually, or at such times as the Trustees of Public Burial Grounds shall request, pay over to that Board the amount of interest received by him or her from the investment of the money.
[Amended 6-3-2014 by Ord. No. 100-2014]
Any person holding, owning or interested in any lot in a public burial place of the City may deposit with the Treasurer a sum of money, to be determined by the Cemetery Board, which sum so deposited shall be entered upon the books of the City Treasurer and forever held as a fund for the purpose of providing for the preservation and care of such lot or its appurtenances. The person making such deposit shall at that time designate the name of the cemetery in which the lot to be cared for is located, the number and specific location of the same and the name of the person in whom the title thereof stands, and the City Treasurer shall deliver to such depositor a certificate of deposit setting forth the same and the purpose of the deposit.
The income of each deposit under the provisions of § 11-7 shall be expended, under the direction of the Board of Trustees for Public Burial Grounds, in providing for the preservation and care of the lot designated in the certificate of deposit or the appurtenances belonging thereto.