WARREN Company shows interest in lease

Oaklawn Mausoleum became the city's responsibility many years ago.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A mausoleum closed since 1998 could start taking new occupants.
Bob Pinti, deputy health commissioner, said a California company that maintains one of two mausoleums at Union Cemetery on Niles Road has expressed interest in leasing the cemetery from the city.
That lease agreement would include maintenance of the Oaklawn Mausoleum, the cemetery's other mausoleum.
Western Reserve Cemetery Corp. maintains the Western Reserve Mausoleum; its California owner, William Muter, has Warren roots.
The city inherited the old mausoleum, where indigent burials occurred, when its caretakers abandoned it in the 1930s or 1940s, Pinti said.
The city and Warren Township formerly operated Union Cemetery jointly.
The Oaklawn Mausoleum was closed because of its poor condition and the expense to repair and maintain it. "The mausoleum has been officially closed since 1998, when council passed an ordinance prohibiting anyone from being interred there," Pinti said.
He estimated the mausoleum at more than 75 years old, but room remains.
If the city pursues the lease agreement, it would have to be put out for bid. Under such an agreement, the city would pay a monthly amount for maintenance. "It's something that is being discussed," Pinti said, adding that it must have the blessing of city workers' unions.
Historical significance
Wendell Lauth, a Trumbull County historian, said there are six Civil War soldiers buried in the two mausoleums.
The soldiers' deaths range from 1901 through 1929, but there isn't a breakdown of which mausoleum contains them.
In November 1996, city workers discovered that vandals had broken into the Oaklawn Mausoleum, damaged marble markers inside and removed the top half of a body from one of the grave chambers, propping it against a wall.
At the time, the mausoleum contained 370 bodies.
It was closed shortly thereafter.