Efforts to organize area rural cemeteries have stalled.
Around 30 people attended a second meeting about possibly organizing the area’s rural cemeteries into a loose alliance last night at Buchanan & Cody Funeral Home in Jacksonville. The meeting was organized by John Buchanan, a long-time board member for Ebenezer Cemetery.
The attendance for the second meeting fell well short of the nearly 80 or more in attendance at the first meeting held back in March. Approximately 30 people attended with representatives from cemetery boards across Morgan, Scott, Greene, and Cass counties.
Buchanan says the majority of sentiments at the meeting seemed to be that too much money and effort will be needed to form a proper alliance: “A lot of people spoke positively about some of the ideas that were raised. Many of them did not like the idea of moving forward at this point in time. Folks are pretty uncomfortable with change; and particularly, this is a more elderly population that governs the area’s cemeteries. I understood that going in, but we are going to have to address the future at some point in time. I was disappointed that we are going to put everything on hold at this point in time. At the same time, I really do feel we have accomplished something about bringing awareness to the cemetery problems to our general public and communities.”
Buchanan also says that cemetery leaders also learned a lot from the process, possibly realizing there are better ways to govern their respective cemeteries. He says that everyone needs to work together and find younger volunteers and members or the problems will continue to exacerbate as older members age out.
Buchanan says its now in the hands of others to carry this idea forward if they want to come together some time down the road and make an alliance.