[R.O. 2001 § 140.010]
The City of Memphis shall have the sole and exclusive power
to permit and regulate the location, digging and maintenance of graves
within the territorial limits of the Memphis Cemetery in compliance
with the Statutes of the State of Missouri and the regulations and
ordinances hereinafter adopted by the City of Memphis.
[R.O. 2001 § 140.020]
It shall be unlawful for any person, firm, organization, corporation or other entity to excavate or remove any earth for the creation of a grave or burial site within the territorial limits of the Memphis Cemetery except in compliance with this Chapter 145 of the Code of the City of Memphis. All requests for the digging of a grave or burial site within the territorial limits of the Memphis Cemetery shall be made to the City of Memphis or their designated agent. All excavation of earth required for the opening of a grave or closing of a grave shall be performed only by the City of Memphis, its agents or independent contractors who are contracted to the City for that specific purpose.
[R.O. 2001 § 140.030]
The Board of Aldermen of the City of Memphis shall meet annually
and establish a fee which shall be assessed and paid by any person,
firm, organization, corporation or other entity requesting the opening
and closing of a grave or burial site in the Memphis Cemetery. The
Board of Aldermen shall be authorized to establish a fee for those
who, at the time of their death, were residents of the City of Memphis
and a separate fee for those who, at the time of their death, were
not residents of the City of Memphis.
[R.O. 2001 § 140.040]
Payment of the fee established by the City of Memphis for the
opening and closing of graves shall be made within five (5) business
days following the actual date of the closing of the grave site. In
all cases where a funeral home, funeral service, funeral chapel or
other funeral entity or agency conducted funeral services or requested
the excavation of the grave site, then said funeral entity shall be
responsible to the City of Memphis for the payment of the fee provided
herein.
[R.O. 2001 § 140.050]
The Board of Aldermen shall have the authority to periodically
solicit bids for independent contractors to have the authority to
furnish the necessary equipment and perform the required labor for
the opening and closing of grave sites in the Memphis Cemetery in
compliance with the specifications as may be created by the Board
of Aldermen. Said bids solicited shall be submitted on a cost per
grave basis.
[R.O. 2001 § 140.060; Ord. No.
856 § 1, 11-7-2002; Ord. No. 937 § 1, 9-4-2008]
A.
CEMETERY
CEMETERY DEED
CONTRACTOR
CRYPT
GRAVE SPACE
INTERMENT
INTERMENT RIGHT
INTERMENT SPACE
LOT
MAUSOLEUM
MEMORIAL
NICHE
OWNER
Definitions. For the purposes of this Section, the following words
and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them
in this Subsection.
All cemetery grounds under the jurisdiction of the City of
Memphis.
A written document issued to a lot or grave space owner conveying
title to a lot or grave space and showing the interment of a deceased
person in the Memphis Cemetery.
Any person or entity (except for an employee of the City
of Memphis) such as a monument installer who is engaged in or performing
any work in the cemetery.
A burial place specially constructed, drained and vented
for below-ground burial.
A single earth burial space within a cemetery lot.
Burial, interment or entombment of the remains of a deceased
person.
The legal right to inter in a grave space.
A single grave space, lawn crypt, mausoleum or niche.
A plot of ground within the confines of the Memphis Cemetery,
twenty (20) feet by twenty (20) feet square, containing eight (8)
grave spaces, each five (5) feet by ten (10) feet in size and being
completely surrounded by a four-foot-wide walkway as shown on the
plat of same cemetery. Spaces in the Memorial Addition of the Memphis
Cemetery are sixteen (16) feet by twenty (20) feet containing eight
(8) grave spaces each four (4) feet by ten (10) feet in size. In the
Western Addition, lot sizes are four (4) feet by twelve (12) feet.
An above-ground burial in a grave receptacle designed to
receive a body in a casket.
Any market, monument, name plate or other approved structure
placed upon a grave for the purpose of identification.
A repository for the interment of cremated remains within
a columbarium.
That person or entity who owns the interment right, as determined
by the City of Memphis records.
B.
Purchase And Ownership Of Interment Graves.
1.
Interment Right Or Cemetery Deed. Any person or entity purchasing
a grave space or spaces, who has paid the total purchase price, shall
be issued a cemetery deed. The cemetery deed vests in the owner an
interment right to bury a deceased human body only. No verbal agreement
alone shall be binding upon the cemetery, and no cemetery deed shall
be issued until payment in full for the grave space or spaces has
been made to the City of Memphis. Owners may convey their ownership
of any interment space by deed.
2.
The purchase price of a grave space or spaces in the Memphis
Cemetery shall be determined by the Board of Aldermen of the City
of Memphis.
3.
If no interment is made in an interment space or if all remains
have been lawfully removed from that space, the owner's interment
rights in the unoccupied interment space shall pass upon the owner's
death to the owner's heirs at law and if owner's interment
rights are not disposed by owner's will, then the owner's
interment rights in any unoccupied space shall revert to the City
of Memphis.
4.
The City of Memphis reserves unto itself a perpetual right of
ingress and egress to and from all cemetery lots, roads and walkways
in the Memphis Cemetery.
5.
If any tree, shrub or plant standing on or adjacent to any cemetery
lot becomes detrimental to any adjacent cemetery lot, road, walkway,
feature, improvement or fixture, the Board may (but is not required
to) remove such tree, shrub or plant or any part thereof or may otherwise
correct the detrimental condition as the City deems proper, without
notice to or consent of any lot or grave space owner.
6.
The City of Memphis may use any property which the Board of
Aldermen has jurisdiction over for any purpose which the Board of
Aldermen deems proper, including without limitation selling or developing
such property for any use other than as a cemetery.
C.
Interments And Disinterments.
1.
Except as agreed between the City of Memphis and the lot owner
or the lot owner's representative (the funeral director), no
interment shall be made until the cost of said cemetery lot has been
paid in full.
2.
If a burial is permitted by the City of Memphis before payment
in full has been made for said lot, the cemetery may, without notice
and at the cemetery's discretion, refuse to allow another burial
on said lot until said payment is made in full to the City of Memphis.
3.
No disinterment shall be allowed in the cemetery without advance
notice of at least twenty-four (24) hours in writing to City personnel
or to the Board of Aldermen. Such disinterment may be authorized only
by the person originally authorizing the interment or by a court order
and must be approved by City personnel or by the Board of Aldermen.
4.
Nothing but a dead human body may be interred in the Memphis
City Cemetery. There shall be no more than one (1) body buried in
any interment space except as specifically permitted by the lot owners
and the cemetery. With permission of the cemetery, there may be one
(1) body and one (1) cremation, or two (2) cremations only, in an
interment space.
D.
Authorized Agent Of Memphis Cemetery. The current authorized agent
of the City of Memphis is the City Clerk whose office is in the Memphis
City Hall building located at 125 W. Jefferson, Memphis, Missouri,
where all official plats of the Memphis Cemetery are located. The
City Clerk is authorized to sell grave spaces in the Memphis Cemetery,
to issue deeds for same, and to collect all monies due the City of
Memphis for grave spaces sold.
E.
Funeral Directors.
1.
Prior to any burial, funeral directors shall contact the City
for availability, location and marking of a grave space. A representative
of the City of Memphis shall be responsible for seeing that the grave
laid out for opening at the City's direction is in the correct
location. Should a problem arise involving a burial or a wrong grave
space due to an error made by the City of Memphis, the City shall
be required to correct that error at the City's own expense.
2.
The funeral director shall not be held liable for the cost of
a grave space or cemetery lot that his/her client does not pay. The
funeral director, however, shall be encouraged to impress upon his/her
client that no deed will be issued by the cemetery until the cost
of the grave space or spaces is paid in full.
F.
Cemetery Operation.
1.
During the mowing season, decorations with cut or artificial
flowers may only be placed on a cemetery lot, grave space or crypt
in an approved vase or container integrated with the existing memorial.
The cemetery may remove and dispose of any and all decorations at
such time as City personnel deems necessary in order to mow or otherwise
maintain the cemetery.
2.
The City of Memphis may remove without notice or consent any
planting, decoration or other subject placed on or about any cemetery
lot or grave space which the City of Memphis deems to be improper,
unsightly, dangerous to persons or equipment or which hinders in any
way the mowing, raking or care of the cemetery by City personnel.
3.
No enclosure of any kind such as a concrete curb, fence, coping,
hedge or ditch shall be permitted around any cemetery lot, individual
grave space or crypt. No cemetery lot, grave space or crypt shall
be raised above the established grade level.
4.
The City of Memphis expressly disclaims all responsibility for
all loss or damages from causes beyond reasonable control, but not
limited to thieves, vandals, acts of God, explosions, unavoidable
accidents (including, without limitation, damage to memorials due
to mowing equipment) whether direct or indirect. In particular, the
City of Memphis assumes no responsibility for memorials, flowers,
decorations, vases, urns or other property on any lot or grave space.
5.
City personnel shall be responsible for filling all sunken graves
and shall sow grass seed on all new graves. The lot owner, or grave
space owner, may sod his/her own grave space (at no cost to the cemetery)
with the supervision of City personnel.
6.
No person or vehicle shall be permitted to enter or leave the
cemetery except by established cemetery roads.
7.
Any person found in the cemetery after sundown will be considered
a trespasser. The cemetery will be locked at 7:00 P.M. and unlocked
at 7:00 A.M. by the Memphis Police Department.
8.
All persons entering the cemetery shall conduct themselves with
proper decorum and at the discretion of City personnel, a person may
be removed from the cemetery for any breach of this rule.
9.
No vehicle shall be driven in the cemetery at a speed greater
than fifteen (15) miles per hour. All vehicles shall be restricted
to cemetery drives. Any person found driving on a grave will be reprimanded
and/or arrested as a trespasser.
10.
The cemetery reserves the right to exclude any or all vehicles
from the cemetery on Memorial Day or any other holiday or for special
events when such action is deemed necessary by cemetery officials.
11.
No drinking, picnicking, loitering, skating, hunting, trapping
or participating in any sporting event or game activity will be permitted
in the cemetery.
12.
All persons are strictly prohibited from picking flowers, removing
trees or shrubs, or making any alteration to any property within the
cemetery, except for the lot or grave space owner on his/her own property.
13.
All persons are reminded that the cemetery is devoted to the
burial of the dead. These are sacred grounds to the families whose
loved ones are buried within the Memphis Cemetery. Also, the rights
of other lot or grave space owners must be respected by strict adherence
to the rules and regulations as set forth herein.
14.
The provisions and penalties as set out in the Missouri State
Statutes pertaining to cemeteries will be strictly enforced in all
cases of injury to the cemetery grounds, disturbance within the cemetery,
or disregard to these cemetery rules and regulations.
G.
Markers, Monuments Or Memorials.
1.
A cemetery or owner or grave space owner may purchase from any
reputable monument dealer a marker, monument or other memorial and
may have that memorial installed in the Memphis Cemetery. It is required
by the cemetery, however, that a memorial be installed "in line" with
all existing memorials and that a sufficient foundation be installed
for the memorial, as follows:
a.
Bevel marker memorials of less than twenty-four-inch height
— twenty-eight-inch minimum depth.
b.
Tablet memorials of less than twenty-four-inch height —
thirty-two-inch minimum depth.
c.
Tablet memorials of twenty-four-inch to thirty-six-inch height
— thirty-six-inch minimum depth.
d.
Tablet memorials of more than thirty-six-inch height —
minimum depth shall be at least the height of the memorial.
2.
Foundations shall provide a level base for the memorial, be
constructed of portland concrete 5 1/2 bag mix (QUIKRETE®, Sakrete® and
similar products are prohibited) and have at minimum three-inch collars
around the edge of the memorial.
H.
Each Warranty Deed Issued By The City Of Memphis Shall Contain The
Following Restrictions.
1.
The City of Memphis shall have the exclusive control and management
of said cemetery and all improvements thereon. No person shall be
permitted to place upon or remove from any lot or grave space in said
cemetery any improvements of any description whatsoever, including
trees, flowers, shrubbery, etc., without the consent of the Board
of Aldermen.
2.
No lot or grave space in cemetery shall be used for any purpose
other than a place of burial of a deceased human being.
3.
No concrete, masonry, rock or other type of urns will be permitted
on any lot or part of lot in said cemetery.
4.
No burial will be permitted unless in at least an approved concrete
box, vault or mausoleum.
