Last fall the following headstones were leveled: Andrew Mitchell , Hannah M. Pointon, Duncan McTav- ish, and Samuel Loug
MOLESWORTH CEMETERY 43632 Amberley Road, Hwy 86, Howick Township, 519-291-9971 Minutes of Plot Owners Meeting June 18, 2014 Board Members Present: Bert Mitchell, Howard Mitchell, Jim Kerr, and Manager, Alyson Nyiri Regrets: Anne Mitchell, Carol Wildgoose, Janet Stilling, Bonnie Brown Plot Owners Present: Betty Mitchell, Linda Prowten, Jack Adair, Howie Baker, Ethel Baker, Ellen Waldock, Secretary pro tem: Bert Mitchell who will share a draft of the minutes with the Board for comment Meeting called to order at 7:10 PM by Chair, Bert Mitchell The Chair noted the absence of a quorum and lack of authority to make a binding decision. Both the minutes of the April 16, 2014 meeting and the record of this June 18 Plot Owners meeting will be carried forward for approval by a quorum during the July 13 meeting. The Chair made note of the approval of the minutes from conference call meetings held on November 21, 2013, December 4, 2013, January 3, 2014 and January 8, 2014. The Treasurer presented the attached financial report. On December 31, 2013, the Operating Account had a balance of $4,500, the Project Account had a balance of $16,000 and the Perpetual Care Account had a balance of $24,000. Net cash and Trust assets totaled about $45,000. The Operating Account had 2013 total expenditures of $17,500 which exceeded income by $2,500. Donations in 2013 totaled $10,100 of which $1,200 was donated at the Memorial Service. The main sources of revenue are donations and lot sales. Note financial report located nearby. Manager's Report: Lot Sales In 2013 9 interment rights were sold. Interments In 2013 we have had only 1 interment. Don Passmore was buried on August 27 th. This year we have had 5 interments in the past 2 months: Donna Moore, Lyle Ronald, Esther Elliott, Ruth Vogan and Jean Elliot. We have an inurnment booked for July 5th. OACFP In April I attended a Spring Educational Seminar in London which reviewed the many changes to the Funeral, Burial and Cremation Act. It is as a result of these changes that our By-laws and some of our operational procedures have had to be updated and modified.
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MOLESWORTH CEMETERY 43632 Amberley Road, Hwy 86, Howick Township, 519-291-9971 One of the most notable changes is the strengthening of consumer protection for purchasers when buying a burial lot. When lots are purchased the Cemetery must provide a copy of its current price list, its bylaws, and an explanation of any restrictions on the rights they are buying (such as any restrictions on memorialization options, monuments, etc.). The seminar included sessions on health and safety, cost effective maintenance programs and a later session on Privacy requirements. This particular session provided guidelines on safeguarding our mailing list used to send out our newsletter. We do not make our mailing available to anyone nor will we ever do so in the future. While at the seminar I met with a representative of Legacy Privacy Trust who specializes in managing the Care & Maintenance Funds of Cemeteries. Bert, Howard and I had a conference call with them earlier this afternoon. Howard will speak to that. Leveling of headstones Last fall the following headstones were leveled: Andrew Mitchell , Hannah M. Pointon, Duncan McTavish, and Samuel Lougheed. The total cost for leveling the 4 stones was $2,203.50 The Paul Doig stone will be done this year. Globe and Mail: Graveyard Shifts: Inside the last business you’ll ever need, …. The fees for lots in urban cemeteries are quite shocking: in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto you would pay $32,000 plus to be buried in “one of the spiffier doubles”. A plot goes for $16,000!! Mount Pleasant is owned by Arbor Memorial Inc. which is the country’s largest cemetery chain. The article interviews Gary Carmichael who is the vice-president of Arbor Memorial and is a member OACFP. Arbor Memorial, with its 41 cemeteries across the country, handles some 18,000 deaths a year while churchyards and village cemeteries do an estimated 12,000 traditional burials. With many urban cemeteries filling up and increasingly tight land-use regulations, we may soon see an increase in out-of-town requests to purchase lots. In the old days, the article says, a cemetery might conceivably bury your grandparents, your parents, you, your children, their children, and so on. Now, with the population density so high, a single generation might fill an entire cemetery. Carmichael raises an interesting point – in what other business is there a requirement for eternal maintenance? In the cemetery business, you cannot quit no matter what happens, he says. He also says that the income from the cemetery’s trusts does not cover the cost of upkeep. But Arbor Memorial reported at $240 million in 2010! Interestingly, the introduction of term burials has been in place in some Quebec cemeteries. In 1995 Quebec amended its contract laws, so that contracts for cemetery plots, like other civil agreements, could not exceed 100 years in length. This means that upon expiry, descendants will have to renew the contract to prevent the bones of their ancestors from being re-interred in less valuable ground elsewhere.
The Chair reviewed the boundary dispute and the Board decisions to cease the legal action of attempting to recover damages and to erect a simple fence in the disputed area.
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MOLESWORTH CEMETERY 43632 Amberley Road, Hwy 86, Howick Township, 519-291-9971 By-Laws 2014 were approved February 21, 2014. The By-Laws 2014 replace By-Laws 2013 entirely. Owners are advised to discard By-Laws 2013. The By-Laws 2014 are to be copied and made available for distribution at the Memorial Service on July 13 and upon a request made to the Manager. Alyson reviewed the status of work to complete a public registry of all plot owners. Janet is leading the effort and currently unable to devote time to it. Janet expects to continue this work soon. The Price List was revised to remove some detail. No change in prices. The Manager raised a question about headstone spacing. In the older section of the Cemetery the lots are smaller- 4ft by 9ft- than in new section (4ft by 12ft). When the lots were originally marked caskets were not buried in vaults. Consequently, when a burial takes place today with a vault the space allotted can be very tight. The foundations of the headstones also make those older lots a bit smaller too. As these older lots cannot be modified we may have some trouble with future burials and may need to remove foundations in order to accommodate the vault. Our bylaws state that should this be the case, the expense of removing and replacing a foundation will be incurred by the Cemetery. The Chair noted the need to recruit new candidates for the MC Board and stand for election on July 13. Meeting Adjourned.
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