Roanoke’s Cedarwood Cemetery is almost full, and city officials are taking steps that ultimately could lead to the end of burials taking place in the historic cemetery.
“It’s not going to be many more people that are buried there, if any,” said Roanoke mayor Adam Melton at Monday’s meeting of the Roanoke City Council.
The retirement of Calvin Veal, who has had the duty of overseeing the records for the sale and maintenance of burial plots in the cemetery, has led the council into action. There is a belief that fewer than 100 plots remain in the cemetery, but that number is difficult to verify. Records over the years have been haphazardly kept, and who owns which unused plots – and where those plots are located – is a mystery that the city must unravel.
To that end the council discussed hiring Joseph Gibbs to take over for Veal. Part of Gibbs’s duties would be to piece together the cemetery records and determine which plots have been sold, to whom they belong, and whether the city can continue to sell whichever plots remain.
The city was recently approached by someone looking to purchase six plots in the cemetery, but given the current circumstances that sale may not take place.
“I wouldn’t sell any more,” said city councilmember Tim Jacobs.
The reason is that because of the poor records, there is a possibility the city could have inadvertently double sold plots or could do so in the future. Families will often buy plots to be used at an undetermined future date. Those sold plots could go unused for many years, even decades. Without accurate documentation of ownership, plots that do not currently have graves could be mistaken as unsold and lead to problems down the road.
Jacobs suggested that the city look into hiring a professional to fully map out the existing graves in the cemetery, and begin to create a reliable record of the land and to whom it belongs.
The council tabled the matter of hiring Gibbs, whose requested compensation would be $450 per month. That hire could be made at the next council meeting June 15.
