Trees & Landscaping - Cemetery Ordinance

Lanscaping Old Towne Augusta
Trees & Landscaping

Cemetery Ordinance

CHAPTER 5 - CEMETERIES

ARTICLE 1
GENERALLY

§ 1-5-1. AUGUSTA-RICHMOND COUNTY CEMETERIES ENUMERATED; PROMULGATION OF GOVERNING RULES, ETC. THE CEMETERIES OF AUGUSTA-RICHMOND COUNTY SHALL BE THE THREE NOW EXISTING, NAMELY, MAGNOLIA CEMETERY, WEST VIEW CEMETERY, AND CEDAR GROVE CEMETERY.

It shall be the duty of the Commission, whenever it becomes necessary, to lay out or alter avenues and walks, and to make such rules and regulations as deemed requisite and proper for the management of such cemeteries and those employed therein.

§ 1-5-2. SUPERINTENDENT OF CEMETERIES -- GENERALLY; BONDS.

The Director of the Trees and Landscape is hereby declared to be the general superintendent of Magnolia, Cedar Grove, and West View Cemeteries.

§ 1-5-3. SUPERINTENDENT -- DUTIES -- GENERALLY.

The superintendent enumerated in the preceding section shall perform the following duties:

He shall have charge of the cemeteries to which he is assigned and shall report to the Sheriff's Department all violations of the provisions of this article or other ordinances relative thereto which may come to his knowledge;

He shall superintend the digging of all graves and all interments therein. No grave shall be dug less than three and one-half feet deep; nor shall any grave be dug or corpse interred, except under the direction or superintendence of such superintendent;

He shall keep a book of record of all burials in each cemetery, mentioning the names and ages, and the places where buried, and make a report, at least annually to the Augusta-Richmond County Commission of the same;

He shall record, or cause to be recorded, all burial permits, subject to the inspection of all who may be concerned;

He shall exact prompt payments for all lots, quarter sections, half sections or sections, in such cemeteries, at the time of the sale, and receipt therefore, and make a return monthly of such sums to the comptroller, specifying to whom sold, with a description of the ground sold;

He shall have all sections in the cemeteries requiring it properly cleaned, and the trees and shrubbery therein trimmed, the same to be paid for by the owners of such sections.

§ 1-5-4 AUTHORITY OF CEMETERY SUPERINTENDENTS -- GENERALLY.

The superintendent of Augusta-Richmond County cemeteries shall have authority to:

Clean up neglected sections and remove all objects that are obstructions to cemetery equipment;(b) Remove flowers and stands from sections five (5) days after the undertaker's canopy is removed;(c) Fill sunken graves or sections where water stands;(d) Approve or disapprove the setting of monuments and the bricking of sections, and the privileges granted under section 1-5-12 shall be subject hereto.

§ 1-5-5. ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF CEDAR GROVE CEMETERY.

The Superintendent may appoint an employee to be known as the assistant to the superintendent of Cedar Grove Cemetery. Such person shall have charge of such cemetery and shall be subject to the same rules and regulations as the superintendent of Magnolia and Cedar Grove cemeteries, to whom he shall make all necessary reports.

§ 1-5-6. ASSUMPTION OF CARE OF ROLLERSVILLE CEMETERY; SUPERVISION;
CONVICT LABOR TO BE USED.

The Augusta Richmond County Commission assumes the care of Rollersville Cemetery, Using therefore the services of convicts for the purpose of keeping such cemetery in a clean and sanitary Condition. (City of Augusta Code 1952, Ch. 12, § 14)

§ 1-5-7. DIGGING GRAVES AND BUILDING VAULTS -- BY WHOM PERFORMED; SUPERVISION.

The digging of graves and the building of vaults in the several cemeteries of Augusta-Richmond County shall be done by the employees of Augusta-Richmond County under the supervision of the superintendents of the several cemeteries, respectively. If this work cannot be performed practically or economically by Augusta-Richmond County employees, then the same may be done by other employees under the direction of the superintendents of the several cemeteries, respectively.

§ 1-5-8. SAME -- SCHEDULE OF FEES.

The fees for all work described in the two (2) preceding sections shall be collected and paid over to the proper officer and shall be as follows:

For opening and closing of single graves: Two Hundred Dollars ($200.00) on weekdays before 4:00 p.m., Two Hundred Fifty Dollars ($250.00) on weekdays after 4:00 p.m. and Two Hundred Fifty Dollars ($250.00) on weekends and holidays. For opening and closing of double graves (two individuals to a single plot): four Hundred Dollars ($400.00) on weekdays , and Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) on weekends and holidays. For purposes of this subsection, "weekends" includes up to 1:00 p.m. on the following business day and includes all national, state, and local holidays. For burial of children under twelve years of age, Seventy-Five Dollars ($75.00). For cremations and burial of stillborn babies, Fifty Dollars ($50.00).

In addition to the foregoing fees, fees for all other and miscellaneous work shall be collected and paid over to Augusta-Richmond County. Exceptions to the fees shall be approved by the Administrator and Superintendent of Cemeteries.

§ 1-5-9. SAME -- NO CHARGE FOR INDIGENT.

No charge shall be made for digging graves and attending funerals of the indigent.

§ 1-5-10. CEMETERY EMPLOYEES TO WORK EXCLUSIVELY IN CEMETERIES, ETC.

No Augusta-Richmond County cemetery employee shall be permitted to work within Augusta-Richmond County cemeteries during his regular work hours except for Augusta-Richmond County government.

§ 1-5-11. PURCHASE OF CEMETERY MATERIALS.

All material used in Augusta-Richmond County cemeteries shall be purchased by Augusta-Richmond County on requisition, and monthly accounts of all transactions shall be kept by the superintendent and reported to the Administrator.

§ 1-5-12. RIGHT OF LOT OWNERS TO CULTIVATE TREES, GRASS, ETC.; REMOVAL WHEN DANGEROUS, ETC.

The proprietor of each cemetery lot shall have the right to enclose the same with a wall, fence or railing, except of wood, and to cultivate trees, shrubs, and plants in the same, but no tree growing within the wall or lot, shall be cut down or destroyed without the consent of the Superintendent of Cemeteries. If any trees and shrubs situated in any cemetery lot shall, by means of their roots, branches, or otherwise, become detrimental to the adjacent lots or avenues, or dangerous or inconvenient to pedestrians, it shall be the duty of the Commission, and it shall have the right, to enter the lot and have such trees or shrubs, or such parts thereof as are detrimental, dangerous or inconvenient, removed.

The proprietor of each such cemetery lot shall also have the right to plant and cultivate grass thereon, but if any grass, whether planted by the proprietor or growing naturally upon the lot, is neglected by the proprietor and permitted to grow wild, and such grass, weeds or underbrush are allowed to grow unattended or such lot otherwise is not kept clean, the superintendent of the cemetery wherein the lot is located shall mail to the proprietor of the lot ten (10) days written notice at his last known address to remedy the condition, or if the proprietor or his address be unknown or if the proprietor is deceased, then written notice shall be posted upon the lot for ten (10) days requiring the condition to be remedied. If at the expiration of such ten-day period from the mailing or the posting of such written notice the condition has not been remedied, then Augusta-Richmond County shall be authorized to kill and destroy the grass, weeds and underbrush, thoroughly clean the lot and cover the same with sand, grave, or any accepted chemical in general use which will thereafter prevent vegetation upon such lot.

§ 1-5-13. DESTRUCTION, ETC., OF TOMBS, MONUMENTS, TREES, ETC.; USE OF FIREARMS, ETC.

Any person who shall destroy, mutilate, deface or in any way injure or remove any tomb, Monument, gravestone or other structure or article for the protection or ornament of any Augusta-Richmond cemetery, or of any lot within any Augusta-Richmond cemetery or shall willfully destroy, cut, break, remove or injure any tree, shrub, plant, flower or ornament, or shall use firearms of any description, or commit any other trespass, within the limits of such cemeteries, shall be punished as provided in § 1-6-1 hereof. Any such fine, when recovered, may be applied by the Commission, in its discretion, to the reparation and restoration of the property destroyed or injured.

§ 1-5-14. PLUCKING, ETC., FLOWERS WITHOUT PERMISSION.

It shall be unlawful for any person to cut, pluck or carry away any flower on or from any cemetery lot, other than his own, except by permission of the owner of such lot.

§ 1-5-15. REMOVAL OF IMPROPER, ETC., MONUMENTS, ETC., USE OF COPING PROHIBITED.

If any monument, effigy or enclosure, or any structure or inscription placed in or upon any cemetery lot shall be determined by the Commission to be offensive, or improper or injurious to the surrounding lots or grounds, the Commission shall have the right to enter upon such lot and have the offensive or improper object removed.

The use of coping in Augusta-Richmond County cemeteries is prohibited.

§ 1-5-16. PERMISSION REQUIRED FOR BURIAL OUTSIDE CITY CEMETERY.

It shall be unlawful for any person to bury, or cause to be buried, any dead person in any other place within Augusta-Richmond County than a public cemetery without the permission of the county board of health.

§ 1-5-17. PERMITS TO BURY OR MOVE DEAD BODIES REQUIRED.

No superintendent or other person in charge of any cemetery under the jurisdiction of Augusta-Richmond shall bury or remove from Augusta-Richmond County the body of any deceased person without first obtaining from the board of health a proper burial permit. No undertaker, or agent of any railroad, or any other person, shall remove the body of a deceased person who died in Augusta-Richmond County, or may have been brought into Augusta-Richmond County for burial beyond the limits thereof, without such a permit from the board of health, or from a person designated by it.

§ 1-5-18. BURIAL OF PAUPERS IN FAMILY PLOTS.

Where a deceased person has been certified by the department of family and children's services to be a pauper at the time of death and the family owns a plot in one of Augusta-Richmond County Cemeteries and agrees for the person to be buried there, such a burial shall be permitted.

§ 1-5-19. -- § 1-5-25. RESERVED.

ARTICLE 2
SALE AND MAINTENANCE OF LOTS

§ 1-5-26. PRICES.

The prices of single lots and single graves per grave site in the several cemeteries of Augusta-Richmond County shall be two hundred dollars ($200.00), which includes perpetual care. The two hundred dollars ($200.00) collected, as provided for above, shall be distributed as follows: One hundred dollars ($100.00) to the general fund and one hundred dollars ($100.00) to perpetual care.

§ 1-5-27. MAINTENANCE OF LOTS OR SECTIONS BY AUGUSTA-RICHMOND COUNTY; PERPETUAL CARE AGREEMENT.

In consideration of the respective sums of moneys stipulated in § 1-5-26, the superintendent shall issue to the person paying such charge a contract in accordance with the provisions of this article in which the location of the lot described as section or part of section in accordance with the methods employed by the cemetery where the same is located, the amount paid for the lot or section, the number of graves, the cemetery where located and the name in which recorded shall be designated.

§ 1-5-29. RECORD BOOKS CONTAINING CONTRACTS, ETC., REQUIRED; INDEX.

There shall be kept at the office of the cemetery where any lot referred to in the preceding section is located a substantially bound printed book, printed in the form of the contract issued under the provisions of the preceding section and the superintendent of the cemetery shall, contemporaneously with the execution and delivery of such contract , fill out in such book an exact copy of the contract so delivered, identifying it with his signature, and shall also contemporaneously send a copy of such contract, likewise identified, to the Clerk of Commission, by whom there shall be kept a loose-leaf book wherein he shall promptly and permanently fix such contract copy. There shall be kept by both such superintendent and such Clerk of Commission an accurate index to such books, under the name of the owner of the lot as it appears on the records of the cemetery under the lot number, also under the name of the person paying for such permanent upkeep and maintenance.

§ 1-5-30. RECORD REQUIRED OF CONDITION OF MUNICIPAL-MAINTAINED LOTS; INSPECTIONS; INDEX.

In addition to the books specified in the preceding section there shall also be kept in the office of the superintendent of the cemetery a book in which shall be provided appropriate spaces for the record of each lot which the Augusta-Richmond County Commission is obligated to keep up and maintain, and spaces opposite thereto has been done on such lot and that it is in a neat, orderly and becoming condition.

It shall be the duty of the superintendent to personally inspect all of such lots at frequent intervals, in no case longer than three months, and to see to it that the obligations of the Augusta-Richmond County Commission are fully complied with, and to make entries on such book in Accordance with the facts revealed by such inspections. He shall promptly after making such Entries transmit a certified copy thereof to the Clerk of the Commission who shall promptly and Permanently fix such copy in a loose-leaf book provided for such purpose. Such books shall be Indexed as provided in the preceding section.

§ 1-5-31. ERECTION OF MARKER UPON ACCEPTANCE OF CONTRACT.

Upon the acceptance of a cemetery contract as provided in § 1-5-29, a stone marker or monument bearing the letters A.R.C. shall be fixed or erected on the lot designated in the contract.

All monuments erected at the grave sites in the cemeteries owned and operated by Augusta-Richmond County shall be placed upon a concrete foundation as hereinafter set forth.

In order to guarantee that said monuments will be placed on a solid foundation, no tomb stone may be placed until Augusta-Richmond County has fixed a proper cement foundation for the support of said monument.

The charges for the laying of said foundation shall be payable in advance and that the charges for laying said foundation shall be in accordance with the base size of the monument and the charges for each size shall be set from time to time by the Commission with a schedule of the charges maintained in the Clerk of the Commission's office.

The cemetery crews that are employed by Augusta-Richmond County shall see to it that a proper and solid foundation is laid immediately after the payment of the fees.

§ 1-5-32. AUGUSTA-RICHMOND COUNTY NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR MONUMENTS, STRUCTURES, ETC.

Nothing contained in this article shall be construed as imposing any obligation on Augusta-Richmond County with respect to monuments, curbing, mausoleum, ornaments, memorial, structures, headstones or other improvements, whose sole obligation shall be to perpetually care for and maintain in a neat, orderly and becoming condition the lot or section described in the contract.

§ 1-5-33. -- § 1-5-39. RESERVED.