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Callers want to know status of cemetery plots

5/25/2010
CHRIS HUNTER

A day after Salina city commissioners voted to file a lawsuit in Saline County District Court to reclaim more than 2,500 abandoned plots in Gypsum Hill Cemetery, city officials were inundated with calls from concerned people who own cemetery plots.
“People are worried about us taking their spaces,” said Cindy Wolf, an account clerk in the Salina City Clerk’s office. “A lot of people are concerned about the safety of their spaces.”
Wolf said phones in the department had been ringing all morning Tuesday after an article in the Journal announced the city’s intention to reclaim grave sites that had seen no burials or transfers in 80 years. By Kansas law, cities are allowed to reclaim spaces after 50 years.
Wolf said the clerk’s office is handling questions about the Gypsum Hill Cemetery plots.
“People are getting shook up,” said Gene Peppersack, cemetery supervisor. “They are not realizing it is the older ones (unoccupied plots).”
Wolf said every person who has called the city concerned about losing a plot has learned the plot is not among those the city is trying to reclaim.
“Some other callers are relatives of the owners of unoccupied spaces,” Wolf said. “They weren’t sure how long it had been since there had been no activity.”
Wolf said some had not had activity since the 1940s and 1950s, within the range allowed by the state to reclaim, but the plots were not on the city’s list.
Wolf said the city printed the names of the owners of the plots in question in a legal publication in the Journal on Feb. 5 and 12.
Peppersack said he would not feel comfortable with the city trying to reclaim spaces before 80 years had lapsed without activity.
Gypsum Hill Cemetery, established in 1870, has 16,212 burial sites. Peppersack said the cemetery has about 25,000 available grave sites, but the majority of those have already been sold.
“We are low on space, especially if people want multiple spaces,” Peppersack said. “It is difficult to show people who want to buy more than two spaces. We only have two blocks open.”

Read the rest of this story in Wednesday's Journal.