KINGWOOD — A discussion about plots and urns in Maplewood Cemetery was the first item of discussion on the Tuesday evening Kingwood City Council agenda.
On May 21, 2022, accountant Vickie Hammond took on the job of organizing and doing research on the cemetery. Hammond worked to recreate sections of the cemetery so the information could be put online and made available to the public on the City of Kingwood’s website.
At that time, she said there would be 12 sections for plots, plus two rows of cremations.
Hammond said information that would be placed on the website would include the section name, lot number, the first and last name of the person buried in the plot, whether he or she is a veteran, the deed holders first and last name, and the date of birth and death. She said there will also be a space status line listing if a plot is available or reserved.
Hammond said there are also instances where two people were buried in the same grave. She said in some instances this is a child buried on top of an adult, or two children buried together. Hammond said some of the burials took place before the cemetery was incorporated in 1870, so there is limited information about the graves. She said in some instances she worked with family members to try to find names of some of the deceased.
The cemetery currently has a section for urns and one for plots. That could soon change.
During the Tuesday meeting, Councilman Bill Robertson said individuals who bought regular lots could put two cremation urns on a lot and have one headstone between the two urns, but stones would have to be in line with other markers in the row.
“However,” he said. “We’ll have to have our attorney look at this.” No further action was taken.
According to the city website, all of the sections have now been posted, but the work is not complete.
Anyone with questions, corrections and/or relevant information or documents can call 304-329-1225. The cemetery is at 208 East High St. and the hours of operation is from sunrise to sunset daily.
In other business, council members are considering removing two items from their personnel policy. One would remove the city elections from the holiday list. The second, would allow a supervisor to suspend an employee without first notifying the board.
Council accepted the only bid they received for a pump truck they were selling. Bates Auto Savage submitted a bid of $8,625 for the truck.
The Dec. 26 meeting of the Kingwood City Council has been canceled.
