Editor, Times-Union: I wrote to you a few weeks ago about an issue I have with the Maple Grove Cemetery. The cemetery has prevented me from selling four burial plots I have no intention of using because our home is in Greenfield, Ind., and our intention is to be entombed here. The cemetery uses an 80-plus year ordinance blocking the sale by any individual to anyone but the cemetery at the original purchase price. The basis of the ordinance is to prevent speculation in cemetery property. Maple Grove sells lots to out-of-towners at $400 each and city residents at $300 each. They will pay me $10 per lot, which my mother paid in 1930 at the death of my father when I was 6 months old. I talked to the mayor and discussed my dilemma and he agreed that is seemed unfair and suggested “fair market value” and told me he would meet with the cemetery board (some of whom he appointed) and address my case. I offered to come myself to meet with them but he said it was not necessary and that he would appear for me. My suggestion to him was a reasonable compromise based upon a simple formula of the cemetery simply paying on a buy-back base of $100 under their selling price at that time, i.e. if $300-buy back from the seller at $200 each. The cemetery would be protected from “land speculation” and the citizen would not be penalized by a horse and buggy ordinance of ancient history! He called me after the meeting and explained he was unable to appear for me because of his needed prep for a city council meeting and that my appeal had been discussed and turned down. This decision is an insult to anyone who has cemetery property that don’t intend to use and that “cemetery land speculation” is always lurking in the wings and must be blocked at all costs! I am an 82-year-old partially disabled Korean War veteran, American Legion Honor Guard and chaplain of the Morristown Detachment of the Marine Corps League. I point this out because of repeated and costly surgeries. I need the money! I am very upset about the dogmatic and shabby treatment I have received. I want to offer my congratulations to the citizens of Warsaw for having a cemetery board which has manned the ramparts of the city to prevent an avalanche – a heinous hurd of evil, greedy, burial lot speculators from flooding the city. Indeed a virtual apocalypse caused by “cemetery lot speculators” has been avoided! A final thought – I am so glad that my mother in 1930, when I was 6 months old, told me that I could sell my cemetery lots because my speculation in cemetery property would reap a bonanza for me. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and the cemetery board for your conscientious, thoughtful and considerate deliberation and treatment of one who served for you. Bill Etherton Greenfield
