CARSTAIRS -- Council has approved an update of the town's cemetery bylaw. The move came by way of motion during the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
The provincial Cemeteries Act was recently updated and the town wanted to follow suit in updating its bylaw, said Carstairs CAO Carl McDonnell.
"We did a review of that and sent it off to Municipal Affairs," said McDonnell. "They did a quick review of it and made some recommendations. It was mostly wordsmithing."
McDonnell said some of the changes include that plot sizes have gone from one metre by 2.5 metres to 1.2 metres by 2.8 metres, and updated wording regarding vandalism.
"There are different parts in the bylaw regarding vandalism as well as in the act, so we have to record both of those," he said.
McDonnell said they also made changes in regards to the number of remains per plot.
"Historically you had one plot, one person," he said. "We've changed that to where you can have multiple people in one plot. So if you have cremations you can have six cremations on one plot. You purchase a plot once but you still have opening and closing costs as well as perpetual care fee."
McDonnell said the perpetual care fee is $500 per interment.
"When the cemetery is full and there is no income from selling plots, we still have to maintain it," he said. "So if a tree falls down and knocks down eight headstones or there's vandalism or something along those lines, there is a fund there to replace them."
Council and administration also discussed whether having cremated remains interred in the same plot after the initial interment counted as one or two interments.
"If we have two individuals interred at the same time then there would be one fee for that," he said. "One perpetual care, not two. If they are one plot and buried at different times then there would be two different fees."
