By John Howell
A city board work session on annexation followed a morning work session last Tuesday during which the mayor and aldermen met with representatives of the Batesville Magnolia Cemetery between Eureka Street and Highway 51.
First Security Bank Trust Officer Bill Fleming told city officials that cemetery expenses now exceed revenues by $9,000 to $11,000 annually. Cemetery representatives have asked the city to take over its ownership and maintenance.
A key figure in the present operation of the cemetery is funeral director Sherry Anderson of Dickins Funeral Home, who attended the morning session along with board members Kenneth Brasell and Rupert Howell. Anderson keeps and maintains plot and grave maps and other cemetery records.
The lengthy discussion among city officials, cemetery board members and Anderson revealed:
• The cemetery does not have many unused plots left (a plot is space for 10 graves. Graves that remain unused are scattered throuaghout various family plots on the property;
• There is presently no fund-raising mechanism in place; the cemetery collects $3,000 annually in rent from Batesville Marble and Granite;
• The charge for opening graves is $450; $150 to bury ashes or “cremains;”
• The cemetery has no address directory of people whose family members are buried there;
• Cemetery assets include about $111,000 in certificates of deposit, according to Fleming;
• People who buy plots or individual graves sites receive deeds from the cemetery that are recorded, Anderson said. When plots or grave sites are bought and sold between private parties, the cemetery has no record of the new owner;
• Sherry Anderson’s husband, Bobby Anderson, presently maintains Batesville Magnolia Cemetery grounds; Robert McKinney opens graves, Sherry Anderson said;
• The Batesville Magnolia Cemetery, a non-profit corporation chartered in 1886, has no affiliation with the smaller cemetery to its north, designated in the Pan Gens’ Panola Cemeteries directory as “Batesville Black Cemetery.”
• Batesville Magnolia Cemetery directors have said that board members of the Batesville Black Cemetery have indicated that they also would like the smaller cemetery taken over by the city. None of the directors have attended the city meetings about a transfer of ownership;
“I think we need a cemetery board,” Alderman Stan Harrison said.
“If we don’t have a board we’re going to be meeting a lot in the next two or three years,” Alderman Eddie Nabors said.
“It’s just something that’s going to take time and patience to know Magnolia Cemetery,” said Anderson, who has been working with the site for 25 to 30 years, she said.
“Are you willing to continue what you’re doing if you’re asked to?” Alderman Bill Dugger asked Anderson.
Anderson said that she would be willing.
At the conclusion of the cemetery work session, city officials agreed that they would not want to pursue ownership unless both cemeteries could be combined into one city-owned facility.
“I think we need to get more input from other cities,” Alderman Ted Stewart said.
“This is a work in progress; we don’t know how long it’ll take,” Mayor Jerry Autrey said.