Lions float cemetery management idea to local mayors

Cemeteries don’t take care of themselves, and the Spring Canyon Cemetery is no exception.

The Grand Coulee Lions Club manages Spring Canyon Cemetery, and Birdie Hensley of the Lions Club spoke to the Regional Board of Mayors at their Aug. 3 meeting about them possibly taking over the management of the cemetery.

Hensley explained that as Lions Club members are getting older, it’s getting to be less feasible for them to take care of the cemetery that has about 2,100 people buried in it, including about 450 veterans.

Grand Coulee Mayor Paul Townsend noted that all of the local communities likely have people buried in the cemetery.

Hensley said expenses average $1,400 a month, and that it doesn’t lose money, with burial costs bringing money in to help cover expenses.

Elmer City Mayor Jesse Tillman said it would be nice to see a breakdown of expenses such as the groundskeeping, fertilization, and power cost for pumping water to the cemetery.

Hensley also explained that $175,000 is kept in a fund through the state that would pay to maintain the cemetery in the event of it losing a form of management.

The cemetery itself is in Lincoln County, on roughly five acres of land owned by the Lions Club since about 1955.

Possibly complicating matters for the idea of the RBOM taking over the cemetery is that it isn’t within the city limits of any of the four cities, and none of the four cities are in Lincoln County.

After their discussion, the group of mayors ultimately decided to bring the idea to their respective city councils in Electric City, Grand Coulee, Coulee Dam, and Elmer City before possibly pursuing the idea further by asking the RBOM attorney about the logistics of taking over a cemetery.

According to Washington state law, (Revised Code of Washington) RCW 68.52.030, counties and towns are allowed to collect taxes to manage cemeteries, pay for the provision of a hearse, and other aspects of burying the dead.

Cemetery districts can also be proposed by a county with an election of three commissioners of a district whose boundaries they set, according to RCW 68.52.140. 

“If the county legislative authority determines that the formation of the proposed cemetery district will be conducive to the public welfare and convenience,” the law reads, “the county legislative authority must by resolution so declare…  If the county legislative authority finds in favor of the formation of the proposed district, [they] must designate the name and number of the proposed district, fix the boundaries of the proposed district, and cause an election to be held in the proposed district to determine whether [it] will be formed under the provisions of this chapter, and to elect the first cemetery district commissioners.”