We may have inherited a cemetery: the future of Lake View Cemetery

“You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.” Benjamin Mee in We Bought A Zoo

The 2011 movie We Bought A Zoo which starred Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson is based on the 2008 book of the same name and is a dramatic retelling of the true story of Benjamin Mee, a Brit with little zoological background who bought a wildlife park in England. While I haven't seen the movie I take it that it's a story about serendipity, about seizing a crazy opportunity and discovering unlooked for happiness. Well, the city hasn't bought a zoo but we may have inherited a cemetery. Whether or not that's serendipitous remains to be seen.

For several years now the Lakeview Cemetery Association has been losing money. Certainly it hasn't been for any kind of malfeasance on their part. As a rule, cemeteries are funded by burials and frankly, people aren't getting buried very often any more. When I was a boy growing up in Milwaukee as far as I knew only Hindus cremated their dead. But over the last fifteen or more years cremation has ceased to be an odd or unusual practice and has seemed to have become the norm. In my early years of ministry in Chetek, I was frequently called upon by Burnham-Ours Funeral Home to preside at a funeral of a person I did not know. That hardly ever happens any more and I don't think it's because I've done a bad job of it. People do their own minister-less memorial gatherings these days and the cremains (I don't recall ever presiding at a funeral in the 90s where a body wasn't present) go either home with the family or are disposed of in a sentimental place. (According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, custodians at Walt Disney World and Disneyland are regularly called upon to vacuum up human remains that have been spread on the dearly departed's favorite ride. Really!)

In Wisconsin, it's entirely legal to place cremains in “any lawful manner” as long as the remains have been reduced to a particle size of one-eighth of an inch or less. So, that can be the woods, Lake Chetek or Lake Superior or wherever the deceased's favorite haunt may have been. (Let's hope it wasn't the Tilt-A-Whirl at the Barron County Fairgrounds). Fewer burials means fewer dollars for the association to work with to keep up with the mowing and the trimming to say nothing of the calls the sexton will get to locate either for a funeral or for people doing family research. Because of this for several years now both the Town and the City of Chetek have been subsidizing the cemetery annually in equal portions according to an agreement signed in 2012.

Year                                               Amount (both municipalities' contributions)

2012	$1,500.00
2013	$2,500.00
2014	$3,000.00
2015	$3,000.00
2016	$7,500.00
2017	$10,000.00* * The LVCA purchased a new mower
2018* (estimated)	$8,000.00
2019* (projected)	$8,000.00

As you can tell, it's not that we didn't see this juncture coming. When I spoke informally the other day with former sexton Robert Lund off the top of his head he figured that there had only been seven full burials this past year. Seven! Of course, that doesn't count the placement of urns nor the unofficial spreading of ashes that he and the other former employees of the LVCA frequently find throughout the cemetery grounds. How can you stay financially fluid in conditions like these?

As the Chetek Alert reported just last week on September 25 (City, township to take over Lake View Cemetery) it became official: the Lake View Cemetery Association that has been in operation since 1882 voted to dissolve. So what happens next? Well, under Wisconsin law an “abandoned” cemetery ultimately becomes the responsibility of the municipality in which it is found. If we left it alone for one or more years the city – or, at least that part of the cemetery that resides within the city limits – could take it over if we chose to. However, after five years of being orphaned we must take it over, even if we'd rather not (this according to Section 157.115(1)(b). And if we don't take it over, a county circuit judge will order it to be done. So lump it or leave it, we got it (or at the very least that part that's on city land).

The newer part of Lake View is in the back and is where all the burials now take place

Interestingly enough in 2007, then Chetek Alert reporter Rachel Westberg did a story on this very eventuality with then LVCA sexton Bob Arneson (Future of Lake View Cemetery undecided). According to that article, Arneson said: "It's a lot a cheaper for us to run the cemetery than to let the city run it. If the city would take over, then they have to put someone on as a licensed salesman for plots, and someone to keep records, and they don't want that. They'd just rather have us continue to keep it going." Then President of the Lake View Cemetery Association Jim Fults added: "If the city took over the cemetery, it would go on the tax rolls and they would have to pay city workers nearly two times as much as what we're paying workers now.” This bridge was projected to go out way back then.

Lakeview Cemetery (front and back)

Back in September the members of the Chetek City Council and the Board of the Town of Chetek sat down in our council chambers to see if we could come to some agreement. Frankly, it reminded me of a lot of dances I attended during my middle school years – boys on the one side and girls on the other, with neither one willing to make the first move. For our part, we'd rather not run it as our current public works staff already struggles to get our own work done. What's more, people will be calling – and have been calling - City Hall – looking for where grandma is buried or wanting to purchase a plot. While it doesn't seem like a lot of extra work, I've been informed in no uncertain terms that it definitely will distract from the business that Carmen, Cassandra and Karen already have to tend to. Finally, two-fifths of the cemetery – essentially the front, older section that is practically full – is on city land while the three-fifths of the newer section in the back is on township land. With that math, the council is not in favor of simply a 50-50 financial split. We're we to take it over the council would pursue some equitable solution with the township.

I'm sure we're going to work something out even if it is ultimately us caring for our part and them caring for theirs. I don't think that's the best way to do it and neither do they but right now come December 24 (the end of the 90 day period at which time we have to inform the state cemetery board what our association will look like hereafter) if a better plan cannot be agreed upon that's exactly what's going to be. Depending on your perspective that may be a lump of coal in our stocking and not a gift worth unwrapping.