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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/06/2000 - Regular Minutes - Cemetery Advisory Committee MINUTES for the Cemetery Committee Regular Meeting Thursday, April 6, 2000 - 10:00 a.m. C.S. Parks & Recreation Conference Room Members Present: Katherine Edwards, Joe Wallace, Ed Burns, Helen Perry, David Chester Members Absent: Sarah Adams, Helen Pugh Staff Present: Emily Baker, Secretary; Delmer Charanza, Cemetery Sexton Visitors: North Bardell, Municipal Development Group Rabon Metcalf, Municipal Development Group I. Approval of March Minutes After changing the word on page 2, Section II on the mission statement from “anesthetically” to "aesthetically”, the minutes were approved. II. Consideration & Approval/Disapproval of Absentee Requests Helen Perry approved the absences of Sarah Adams and Helen Pugh; David Chester seconded. III. Further Discussion to Close Shiloh & Salem Sections to Further Burial This will be held over to the next meeting. IV. New Cemetery Site Selection Update North Bardell and Rabon Metcalf with the Municipal Development Group, presented a drawing of the Aggie “Field of Honor” private cemetery that will be located on the site of FM 2818 (Harvey Mitchell Pkwy) and FM 60 (Raymond Stotzer Pkwy). The Pornada Corporation owns 11.69 acres. Mr. Bardell stated that according to the Health & Safety Code Restriction, which indicates a cemetery couldn’t be established within a municipality unless the municipality establishes it, means that the “Aggie Field Of Honor” Committee cannot establish a cemetery, that it would have to be done by the City. The MDG group has met with the mayor and city manager and the planning staff about this and is in the process of trying to work out an agreement with the city and are planning to appear before the council at the end of the month. They have set up some criteria for the cemetery: 1) needs to have good access 2) well-drained, not in flood plain; easily landscaped 3) does not denigrate any existing residential area; already zoned C-1 (Commercial 1). Their proposal would be that the fencing and the landscape would be completely compatible with the University’s landscaping. This property is expensive; therefore, it is probably not particularly attractive to the City. They are doing a preliminary layout of the tracts of the cemetery for the City to look at. There are 17 acres on two tracts. The A&M Foundation is not involved in the process of the new “Aggie Field of Honor”. It would be operated by a board of directors and the revenues will go back to the A&M Foundation. Cemetery Committee Regular Meeting April 6, 2000 Page (2) Mr. Bardell explained that they will go to the City and negotiate a methodology where they transfer the property to the City by deed; the City establishes the cemetery by ordinance, by resolution and by the issuance of a conditional use permit; and then they transfer that property back to the “Aggie Field of Honor” and the cemetery is established and it is done legally under the health and safety code. Then the “Aggie Field of Honor” Committee can run the cemetery. Since the municipality does not own it, it becomes a perpetual care cemetery under state regulations. It requires a $50,000 donation to the trust fund before it is ever established and then 10% of the sales price of each plot goes into the perpetual care fund to produce the funds for the maintenance of the cemetery. There was discussion if the Cemetery Committee would have any input on the maintenance and upkeep of the private A&M cemetery. Kathryn stated that there should not be any conflict in a privately owned Aggie Cemetery and a municipal cemetery with an Aggie section. We would be catering to two different types of people. Some alum’s would pay a lot more to be in the “Aggie Field of Honor” due to the prime location. The new city cemetery would be located further out and less expensive. Mr. Bardell spoke about the economic impact the “Aggie Field of Honor” cemetery would bring to the Brazos Valley. He explained that there are @ 278,000 former students; there are 8-9,000 graduating annually and over the next 30 years, there will be @ ½ million former students. The MDG group did some calculations and showed that the economic impact could be anywhere between 80 million and 130 million dollars over 30 years. This will be something totally unique in the United States. The City could use our advisory committee as a review board for any additional development to the “Aggie Field of Honor”. The first phase would have 1440-1800 plots on two acres close to the entrance. There will be an amphitheater as the focal point at the highest point so that it overlooks the cemetery. There will be an urn portion in the cemetery, also. It will be broken up into different sections, gravestones will all be uniform like a national cemetery. A short video was shown of how MDG would like the “Aggie Field of Honor” to look. It was very impressive. They will meet with the council at the April 27 workshop to fill them in and show them the video. th They have been working on this project for several years, and if they can get the city’s cooperation, they can begin internments as soon as January 2001, although the Amphitheater wont’ be finished. They will have a website established the first part of June. Any advice or suggestions on the running and maintenance of the cemetery that the committee wants to make to the council needs to be done before the workshop. Under the perpetual care cemetery provision, 10% of the fee for the plot ($1200) goes into the perpetual care fund, which would be for the maintenance and care of the cemetery. V. Madeley Donation The only criteria the committee needs to meet for the Madeley donation is that it has to memorialize them. Kathryn suggested that we put this money into the endowment fund, grow the fund, and perhaps name the endowment fund after the Madeley’s; or take part of it up front and create a memorial for them and put the rest into the endowment fund. Right now, the first half of the donation is $18,000 and we will receive the rest later. The committee doesn’t know how much is in the endowment fund now so we will ask Ross to bring that information to the next meeting. Other suggestions were to name part of the cemetery or name the urn garden after them. We need to get the money to have the site surveyed for the new urn garden. It could take @ $5000 to have it surveyed. We could take the $5000 out of the donation and get the urn garden taken care of soon. We will ask Ross to find out how much it would cost for a survey and bring that to the next meeting. Cemetery Committee Regular Meeting April 6, 2000 Page (3) VI. Hear Visitors There were no other visitors. VII.Adjourn For the next meeting we need to think of suggestions we want to make to the council about the “Aggie Field of Honor”. We also need suggestions on the Madeley donation and possibly vote on that. Ross will need to bring us the new wording on the Shiloh/Salem closure. The next meeting will be Thursday, May 4 at 10:00 am at the th Parks and Recreation Department. The meeting adjourned at 11:15 am. O:84:/cemeterycommittee/April.doc