Dear Editor:
I am writing this letter on behalf of the Bethesda Community Cemetery Board of Trustees as the manager/secretary/treasurer of Bethesda Cemetery located on Wellington Road. 8, near Moorefield.
We are a community cemetery operated by a volunteer board.
We read the article in the Community News concerning the price increase of cemetery plots in Drayton and Hollen Cemeteries. It stated council needed to increase the price of plots so that more money would be directed into the care and maintenance fund and then there would be enough money to look after the cemetery in the next 100 years. Council did not want the cemetery to be a burden to the taxpayer.
Most people would not know what the care and maintenance fund is for. While a cemetery is active, 40 percent of the price of a plot and 15 percent of the price of a niche in a columbarium, when sold, is directed to this fund. Also monuments placed in a cemetery are charged a care and maintenance fee of $50 to $250 depending on the size of the monument.
The fund is to be used to look after the maintenance of a cemetery after it is no longer active. That means there are no plots sold and no interments being done. However, the cemetery is allowed to use any money that this fund generates, over and above the principle towards the cemetery’s upkeep.
I do not believe that any cemetery’s care and maintenance account was meant to fully cover cemetery expenses. The cemetery generates income by performing interments and using the remainder of the 60 per cent of plot sales to pay expenses.
At Bethesda Cemetery, we have tried to keep our prices similar to the prices charged by Mapleton. This discourages Drayton residents from purchasing plots in our cemetery because of a cheaper price. We want people to choose Bethesda Cemetery because that is where they want to be and not because of the price.
We want to be a burial ground for our local community. At present, we charge $1,000 a plot. We do not want to raise our price to $2,200 to match Mapleton’s price.
That is too much of an increase and out of line with what other municipalities are charging in north Wellington.
I have had many calls from Drayton residents this week inquiring about our plot prices. One resident said that he could not afford to live in Mapleton Township because of the high property tax and now he cannot afford to die here. He was not joking! We need to work together to provide Mapleton residents with affordable burial options.
Cemeteries are an essential service. They are like parks and green space. I do not think maintaining them in the future will be a burden to the taxpayer. If operated properly, the cemetery should be self-sufficient. Charging high prices for plots is not the way to obtain that goal.
There is never a good time to increase prices but especially now, with so many people struggling during this pandemic, raising prices for cemetery plots seems very insensitive and uncaring.
Pam Ellis
Mapleton