Council confirms final resting place for cemetery columbarium

By Nikki Jamieson
Vauxhall Advance
njamieson@tabertimes.com

After months of back and forth between spots, the new columbarium for the Vauxhall Cemetery appears to have finally found a home.

During their regular June 19 meeting, Vauxhall town council discussed, once again, the potential location for the new columbarium.

The exact location where the columbarium was to be built had been up in the air since April, as originally, the Vauxhall Cemetery Committee had wanted to place the columbarium on land owned by the Municipal District of Taber, and thus needed that council’s permission to do so.

The M.D. said that the columbarium had to be placed in the cemetery, and some three-way back and forth ensued.

In a motion during their May 15 meeting, Vauxhall council said that the columbarium could go on the committee’s preferred site for the columbarium, or site ‘A’, subject to sufficient room, M.D. approval and the committee covers the cost of moving the buried water lines, or for the columbarium to go on the east side of the cemetery, or site ‘B’, if the site ‘A’ conditions are not met and to put the money paid to obtain space in the columbarium towards future additional concrete beams for gravestones.

During their June 5 meeting, they were informed that it would be physically impossible to place it on site ‘A’ and keep it entirely on cemetery land, as the M.D. did not want it encroaching on their land. However, Coun. Richard Phillips reported that an alternative site for the columbarium in open space at the end of a grave row was recently canvassed informally with members of the cemetery committee.

Although no motion was tabled, the town did seek endorsement of the location by both the cemetery committee and family of those buried at the end of the row.

In a memo from staff presented at council’s June 19 meeting, they said that they have inquired with those close to those buried at the end of the row, and have been given the okay.

They recommend that council rescinds their previous motion and make a new motion with council’s decision.

“We’ve done our homework, and if people there don’t object we’re ready to go,” said Martin Kondor, Vauxhall councillor.

Phillips inquired as to what the exact location of the new spot would go, as there was no motion to look it in the minutes of the previous meeting. Town CAO Cris Burns said it would go in “directly south of road two, section two”.

Council passed a motion to revise the location of the columbarium to the south end of road two section two.

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