TRUMBULL COUNTY Council takes up cemetery issue

One of the mausoleums was closed and condemned in 1998.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- After many meetings and much discussion, an ordinance to get bids for management of Union Cemetery and Oaklawn Cemetery is expected to come to a vote this week.
The ordinance is on council's Wednesday meeting agenda, and Councilman John Homlitas, D-3rd, one of its sponsors, expects to seek passage.
Oaklawn Mausoleum, one of two mausoleums at Union Cemetery, closed in 1998. Western Reserve Cemetery Corp. maintains Western Reserve Mausoleum, the cemetery's other mausoleum, and its owner, William Muter, has expressed interest in leasing the cemetery and maintaining Oaklawn. Muter has roots in the city.
Greg Hicks, law director, has said that the city must put the work out for bid.
The ordinance would authorize the administration to advertise for bids and enter a contract for a management agreement at the cemetery. The three-year agreement calls for care of the cemetery, refurbishment of the mausoleum and identification and marking of all unmarked graves.
The city would lift the condemnation order from the mausoleum to allow repairs, keep control over sale of lots in the cemetery and space in the mausoleum and pick up trash from the trash bins at the cemetery.
Union, located on Niles Road, will continue to be the spot for indigent burials.
Discussion
The legislation was introduced last month, and discussed in several meetings with council members asking questions and seeking explanation on various items.
Homlitas said a section of the ordinance dealing with trash pickup will be changed to clarify that the city's environmental services department will pick up trash from containers rather than clean up trash from the cemetery grounds.
Oaklawn Mausoleum was closed and condemned in 1998 because of its poor condition and the expense to repair and maintain it. In 1996, vandals broke into the mausoleum, damaged marble markers inside and removed the top half of a body from one of the grave chambers and propped it against a wall.
At the time, the mausoleum contained 370 bodies.
Six Civil War soldiers are buried in the two mausoleums, their deaths ranging from 1901 through 1929, according to local historians.
The city and Warren Township formerly operated Union Cemetery jointly and the city inherited the mausoleum when its former caretakers abandoned it in the 1930s or 1940s, officials have said.