BROWNSTOWN
There are only a couple of sure things in life — taxes and death.
Two Brownstown residents want to take care of the second one for those who die and want to be buried in the town’s largest cemetery.
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Luke Nolting, president of the Fairview Cemetery board, and Jim Phillips, the cemetery administrator, recently talked to town council members about the possibility of expanding the 25.6-acre cemetery by opening an undeveloped area.
The move would add an additional 1,087 burial plots to the cemetery, which was established in 1850 at 610 N. High St.
All but two of the 36 sections are full or can’t be used for burials because records of existing burials do not exist, Phillips said. Each section holds about 300 graves.
“We have 364 plots available for sale,” said Phillips, who has spent the past eight years surveying graves in the cemetery for the town. He also helped establish a cemetery website and is a member of the Fairview Endowment Foundation.
Among the available plots, 243 are located in Section 5, which was just expanded last year. The rest are in Section 6.
Phillips said there are about 35 to 40 burials a year. There were 33 burials in 2019, down from 44 in 2018. There have been 17 burials this year, while overall about 6,700 people are buried in the cemetery.
Nolting said in 2011-12, the cemetery board completed an assessment of the cemetery that included information about the number of open graves that could be sold. The board also worked on a long-term plan for the cemetery.
The cost of opening the area, which would have six or seven sections with 100 to 200 plots, was a $65,000 price tag at that time.
That work, which includes laying out burial plots, installing a 9-foot stone pathway and providing proper drainage, has an estimated cost of about $100,000 now, but it could be more or less, Phillips said. The plan is to hire a local firm to come up with that cost, he said.
Nolting said the proposed expansion isn’t something that has to be done now.
“Basically, our plan is that we cannot run out of cemetery plots with people continuing to die, but we want to be able to work with you and come up with a plan that can be put in place over a period of time,” Nolting said.
The town would likely fund most of the expenses for the project, Phillips said. The endowment also has money available for capital projects, and there also is the possibility of fundraisers.
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For information about Fairview Cemetery, visit fairviewcemeterybrownstown.org.
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