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WELLSVILLE -- When village council's Cemetery, Ordinance and Personnel committees convened Monday night for 90 minutes, each member, Mayor Randy Allmon, Fiscal Officer Hoi Wah and Solicitor John Gamble were all in attendance to discuss everything from cemetery to police business.
Councilman Mike Lombardozzi started out with discussions on a construction of a receiving vault for cremated remains at Spring Hill Cemetery near the chapel. He explained that he had got only one bid for the project, which would build a columbaria to house niches containing crematory remains. The cost would be either $16,988 for a 36 unit structure, which would contain 18 niches on each side, or $20,075 for a 48-unit structure, which would contain 24 niches on each side.
A bid from Richardson Monuments Inc. of Lisbon, including an additional cost of $200 per niche for it to be personally engraved with the occupant(s)' name and the firm also offered a donation of $7,000 for naming rights to the columbaria structure.
Lombardozzi suggested the niches could be sold at a cost of $1,000 each, which would include the engraving of the occupant's name.
Karen Dash asked how the suggested price compares to the current asking price of a grave in Spring Hill, and Lombardozzi explained that plots cost $600 and an additional $450 to open and $450 to close the grave, whereas instead of spending the thousands involved with a traditional grave with a memorial stone, the niche would act as the deceased person's monument.
The design he was investigating would have 24 niches on one side and another 24 on the other side, and he was confident that the village could make its money back with the investment.
Wah told council that she believed that construction of the receiving vault may be a good use of Alfred Beljke estate moneys, which have been left to the village for the upkeep of Spring Hill.
Since Beljke's death in 2015, the village has received a half million dollars from his estate for improvements to the cemetery, which is Belike's final resting place.
Area funeral homes could sell them as part of their preplanning packages, Lombardozzi explained, reinforcing that the actual choice of niche would have to come through Wah much like they do with traditional graves.
Council members agreed that the matter should come before council as a whole up for a vote, where they could officially establish fees and contract with Richardson for the work.
Members were less enthusiastic about along the ashes of pets to also be entombed in the niches along with humans; however, they did agree to allow Lombardozzi, who chairs the Cemetery Committee, to investigate creation of a pet cemetery in the rear area of Spring Hill Cemetery.
In other action, committees discussed options to improve their retention of police officers, who have been leaving the departments for other jobs where they can earn more per hour. The ordinance committee presented legislation that would add up to three more lieutenants to the police roster, which also would be act as the officer-in charge of each shift in the absence of Chief Ed Wilson and Marsha Eisenhart, who is the department's lone lieutenant and second to Wilson. The promotions would mean that the officers selected by mayor appointment and council confirmation would start at around $17.23 per hour.
Wilson and Eisenhart still would be consulted in the case of major crime incidents, explained Ordinance Committee chair Keith Thorn, himself a former police chief.
Christi Thirtyacre, the councilwoman in charge of the Personnel Committee, still had her reservations that this legislation would take care of the problem associated with exiting officers flocking to other departments who pay more. She reinforced that councilmembers need to look at the starting police wages, and others offering that possibly a police levy or even a police district were possible issues to the dilemma. They agreed that conversation would continue at a future meeting.
Wellsville council will hold its next regular meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5 at council chambers in city hall.