Mary Hansen
The State Journal-Register
With its rows of marble vaults, the Oak Ridge Cemetery Abbey provides a final resting place for about 1,000 people. The century-old building’s sagging concrete roof and chipped ceiling are only the beginning of the cemetery’s problems. “The long and short of everything is, the entire cemetery industry, maybe with the exception of small, rural cemeteries, most cemeteries are experiencing financial difficulties,” said executive director Mike Lelys.
The primary reason is people opting for less-expensive cremation instead of traditional burials, he said.
Money from the city’s capital fund has already been set aside for the roof repairs. But Lelys is asking for an additional $230,000 in corporate funds to keep the cemetery operating through February, the end of the fiscal year.
Though the cemetery is supposed to be self-sustaining, the city has subsidized it for years. The current request is in addition to $400,000, an amount the city has budgeted for each of the last four years. Lelys said it may be time to rethink how Oak Ridge is funded.
“We do everything we can to run a tight ship,” Lelys said. “We need to find a consistent and stable funding source.”
Mayor Jim Langfelder said city money for the cemetery, which houses Abraham Lincoln’s tomb and is the second-most visited in the country, is something that aldermen will need to discuss in their upcoming budget talks.
While there may be some sticker shock with the current request, budget director Bill McCarty said about $120,000 in cemetery expenses were held over from last year.
“(The cemetery) would have had to ask for money last year because they didn’t have the funds to cover their expenses,” McCarty said. “The moral of the story is $400,000 doesn’t appear to be enough (of a subsidy). There is a growing divide between revenue generated and expenses.”
One bright spot, Lelys pointed out, is that revenue from an independent contractor who sells pre-need plots is up compared to the same period last fiscal year. Total revenue for Oak Ridge increased about $18,000 between March and July this year compared to last, in part because of the contractor’s work, Lelys said.
Lelys has some ideas of his own to help bridge the gap between revenue and expenses, including using some of the city’s hotel tax income, as the cemetery is a draw for tourists. More than half a million tourists visit the Lincoln Tomb each year. The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency maintains the tomb, the grounds surrounding it and the war memorials at Oak Ridge.
Ward 7 Ald. Joe McMenamin said he would consider diverting hotel tax revenue.
“Based on the current situation at Oak Ridge and what they went through, it may take a while to balance revenue and expenses. Hopefully we get there, and if we don’t, it’s a historic center that brings in tourists and visitors. And we get (hotel) tax from those visitors,” he said.
The city council will discuss the $230,000 allocation at Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting.
Joe McMenamin for Ward 7 