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Oakwood Cemetery sexton Hal Heagy will meet with Warsaw Mayor Jeff Grose and city attorney Scott Reust about possibly renting out the cemetery chapel.
Renting out the chapel has been talked about by the Oakwood Cemetery Board of Regents for the past couple months.
Heagy told Grose, who attended the meeting Thursday, the idea came mainly from generating money for the cemetery as the chapel isn’t used much. The board has previously talked about allowing some smaller things in the chapel.
Board member Max Mock said there are some smaller churches that are always looking for somewhere to meet. He said if there’s some start-up churches that would be interested, there wouldn’t be too much setting up and tearing down work for cemetery staff.
Mock also suggested possibly having some refrigerators for carry-ins to start off instead of having a full kitchen.
Board member Don Guthrie said the board had bounced a lot of ideas around, but he thought the main priority for renting out the chapel should be what the best use for the community is. Being in a cemetery, there’s a lot of emotion around that. He thinks the board should continue to listen for opportunities.
Heagy said that’s why he wants to bring in Reust because there are people who go to see their loved ones even through the night. Heagy said ultimately it will be Grose’s and Reust’s decision whether or not to go forward with the idea.
Heagy said it looked like he needed to set up a meeting with Grose and Reust to possibly get something started. The board agreed.
Earlier in the meeting, Heagy said there will a historical walk at the cemetery this year. The theme is “Into the Military” and the walk will try to hit on all the different branches of the military. The committee is trying to pick different people to talk about and then as many of the others will be honored in the chapel. Heagy said he would get the board the date for the walk at some point.
In other business, the board heard:
• Tom Kinch’s property is in the process of being platted. Heagy said when the property is platted, then the cemetery will figure out how much to offer Kinch to purchase parts of his property.
• Custom Fencing still hasn’t fixed the fence behind the cemetery office as they’ve been busy. Heagy said he thinks cemetery staff will fix the damage themselves.
• The wood giveaway program has started and seven loads of wood have been given away. People can go to The Salvation Army for vouchers for the program.
