[Code 1979, § 3.31]
The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this chapter,
shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where
the context clearly indicates a different meaning:
BOARD
The City cemetery board of trustees.
BURIAL SPACE
A lot or portion of lot in any cemetery designated and maintained
for the interment of a human body and for no other purpose.
CEMETERY
Pine Tree Cemetery as heretofore established, and any other
public cemetery owned, managed or controlled by the City.
OWNER
Any person owning or possessing the privilege, license or
right of interment in any burial space.
[Code 1979, § 3.32; amended 1-7-2002 by Ord. No. 02-02]
The cemetery board of trustees heretofore established is continued.
(1) The board shall consist of five administrative officers
appointed in accordance with § 4.7 (administrative service)
of the City Charter for indefinite terms serving at the pleasure of
the Council. Upon recommendation of the City Manager, the City Council
shall appoint a cemetery sexton who shall be a salaried administrative
officer of the City.
(2) Of the board membership there will be a president and
vice-president voted upon by the entire board. The cemetery sexton
shall provide for a secretary to record the meetings. All meetings
must have three members present to enact business.
(3) All members of the cemetery board shall serve as such
without compensation. The five-person board membership shall not include
a City Councilperson or the mayor. A majority of the membership shall
be comprised of residents or real property owners of the City of Corunna.
(4) Proposed minutes of the cemetery board meetings are
to be submitted to the City Manager within ten business days following
the cemetery board meeting. Approved minutes are to be submitted to
the City Manager within five days of approval.
(5) Any board member absent two consecutive meetings or
25% of regular meetings in a calendar year, without prior written
approval by the City Manager, will be considered for removal from
the board. All absences shall be recorded in the meeting minutes.
(6) Upon recommendation of the City Manager, the City Council
may appoint one ex officio member to the board. The ex officio members
so appointed by the City Council shall not have a vote at the meetings,
but shall sit only in an advisory capacity.
(7) All administrative officers shall be responsible to
the City Manager in and for the performance of the duties of their
office.
[Code 1979, § 3.33]
The cemeteries which have been or may hereafter be established
by the City and maintained either within or without the City limits,
of which plats have been or shall be filed in the office of the City
Clerk, shall be under the management, supervision and care of the
board. It shall, if necessary, cause such cemeteries to be laid out
in lots, drives and walks; the lots to be numbered, drives and walks
therein to be named, and plats thereof to be made. The board shall
fix the price of lots and fees for other services.
[Code 1979, § 3.34; amended 1-7-2002 by Ord. No. 02-02]
The board shall, from time to time, make such rules and regulations
for the burial of the dead, care, improvement and protection of the
grounds, mausoleums, monuments and appurtenances of the cemeteries
and orderly conduct of persons visiting them, as may be deemed necessary.
The board shall see that this chapter and all rules and regulations
in respect to cemeteries are strictly enforced. The cemetery sexton
or his/her designated agent shall cause to be kept a register of all
interments made in any City cemetery in which shall appear the name
of the deceased, the date and place of interment and such other information
as may be required.
[Code 1979, § 3.35; amended 1-7-2002 by Ord. No. 02-02]
All deeds for lots shall be executed on behalf of the City by
the cemetery sexton or his/her designated agent. Any person desiring
to purchase a burial space in any City cemetery shall make application
and pay the required amount for the lot selected to the cemetery sexton
or his/her designated agent. Upon the purchase of any burial space,
the cemetery sexton or his/her designated agent shall prepare and
deliver to the purchaser a duly executed deed for the burial space.
Such deed shall convey to the purchaser the right of interment only,
and shall be held, subject to the provisions of this Code, existing
rules and regulations, and such ordinances, rules and regulations
as may hereafter be adopted by the City Council. Any sale, transfer
of conveyance of any cemetery lot(s) shall be registered with the
cemetery sexton or his/her designated agent.
[Code 1979, § 3.36; amended 1-7-2002 by Ord. No. 02-02]
All interments on lots in the cemetery are restricted to the
members of the family and relatives of the owner of the lot, and no
interment shall take place on any lot without a permit in writing
from the cemetery sexton or his/her designated agent. No grave in
the cemetery shall be opened for any purpose except under the direction
of the City Council, and only by the authorized employees of the cemetery.
[Code 1979, § 3.37; amended 1-7-2002 by Ord. No. 02-02]
The cemetery sexton or his/her designated agent shall keep proper
records in which the deeds to all burial spaces shall be recorded
at length. In connection with all such records, the cemetery sexton
or his/her designated agent shall also keep a general index in which
shall be noted alphabetically the name of the party to every such
instrument of conveyance.
[Code 1979, § 3.38; amended 1-7-2002 by Ord. No. 02-02]
The cemetery sexton shall charge and cause to be collected on
behalf of the City such fees for work performed in the City cemeteries
as may be fixed from time to time by the board. All such fees shall
be paid to the cemetery sexton or his/her designated agent. No person
other than an employee of the City acting under the direction of the
board shall dig or open any grave, nor shall any person grade or fill
in a burial space or otherwise do any work in connection therewith,
unless such work is done under supervision of the City employee in
charge of the cemetery.
[Code 1979, § 3.39; amended 8-6-2007 by Ord. No. 07-01]
Any violation hereof is punishable by imprisonment for not more
than 93 days or a fine of not more than $500 or both imprisonment
and fine.
[Code 1979, § 3.40; amended 2-21-2006 by Ord. No. 06-01]
One-half of the price received from the sale of each lot in
the City cemetery shall be placed in the fund known as the perpetual
care and maintenance fund. If purchased and erected by the fund, the
full price received from the sale of columbarium niches shall be placed
in the fund known as the perpetual care and maintenance fund. The
fund shall be at all times invested in accordance with the laws governing
public funds in the state, and the proceeds there from may be used
in the general care and maintenance of the cemetery. The remainder
of the purchase price shall be placed in the cemetery operating fund
and the two aforesaid funds shall constitute the cemetery fund. Only
if recommended by the cemetery board and approved by Council, an amount
not to exceed 50% of the accumulated interest and principal available
in the perpetual care fund may be used for the purchase and erection
of a columbarium.
[Code 1979, § 3.41]
Whenever the owner of any burial space or lot in any City cemetery,
who has not paid for perpetual care for such space or lot and has
failed to pay for annual care or has otherwise failed and neglected
for a period of seven years or more to care for and maintain such
space or lot in accordance with the laws, rules and regulations relating
thereto and providing for such care and maintenance, it shall be competent
for the City Council to institute proceedings for the termination
and forfeiture of the rights and interest of such owner, in compliance
with MCL 128.12, MSA 5.3102, relating to abandoned or neglected lots.
This section shall not apply to any space or lot in which a burial
has been made.
[Code 1979, § 3.42]
The planting or training of trees, shrubbery, bushes, flowers,
bulbs, lawn covering or any type of planting upon lots in the cemetery
shall be under the supervision of the board.
[Code 1979, § 3.43]
All workers employed in the erection of vaults, tombstones,
monuments and markers will be subject to the control and direction
of the board.
[Code 1979, § 3.44; amended 1-7-2002 by Ord. No. 02-02]
No interment shall be made in the cemetery nor in any vault
in the cemetery, until the proper information as required by law shall
have first been furnished to the cemetery sexton or his/her designated
agent.
[Code 1979, § 3.45]
No disinterment shall be allowed without the permission of the
board, and upon the written order of the owner of the lot, and in
any case shall only be made by the cemetery authorities, upon the
payment of the charge provided by resolution of the City Council.
[Code 1979, § 3.46]
No plants, planting, trees, shrubs, bushes or flowers shall
be removed from any cemetery lot without the consent of the lot owner
and the board.
[Code 1979, § 3.47]
All funeral processions while in the cemetery grounds shall
be subject to the direction and control of the board or sexton of
the cemetery.
[Code 1979, § 3.48]
The following rules and regulations are hereby established:
(1) No person shall enter the cemetery before 7:00 a.m.
or after sundown.
(2) Lot owners and their families shall be allowed access
to the grounds at all proper times, but must observe all the rules
which may be adopted for the regulation of visitors.
(3) No person with refreshments, liquor or a dog will be
admitted to the cemetery.
(4) No person will be permitted to use boisterous or profane
language, or in any way disturb the quiet and good order of the cemetery.
(5) No vehicle shall be driven in excess of a speed of
15 miles per hour and driving upon the grass or any planted portion
of the cemetery is expressly prohibited.
(6) Discharging of firearms, other than volleys at burial
services, is prohibited, and on such occasion persons with firearms
will not be admitted to the grounds, except as expressly authorized
to participate in such type of service.
(7) All persons are forbidden to sit, walk upon or otherwise
occupy any lot not his own.
(8) Bicycle riders and persons in charge of small vehicles,
such as baby carriages, must confine themselves to the avenues and
not ride upon or pass over lots, burial places or sections, and must
observe generally the rules governing other vehicles and drivers of
vehicles.
(9) All persons are strictly prohibited from plucking any
plants, flowers, shrubs or planting, whether cultivated or wild, breaking
or injuring trees, shrubs or bushes, marring any monument or other
structure or in any way defacing or otherwise injuring anything of
value in the cemetery.