A. Permits Required:
1. Before any deceased person is buried in the city cemetery, a permit properly issued by the registrar of the registration district in which the death occurred or, in the absence of such registrar, a permit duly issued by the state division of health or other authorized person shall be required by the city. After burial, the city shall endorse upon the permit a description of the location where the deceased is buried and shall enter all of the information contained in the permit in the cemetery records.
2. It shall be unlawful for any person to bury the body of a deceased person in the city cemetery without first obtaining a certificate of burial right for the lot used or producing satisfactory evidence of a right to burial based on a properly acquired certificate of burial right.
3. Only under the direct supervision of the city maintenance worker, shall individuals or family members be allowed to conduct the burial of urns.
4. Permission to open a gravesite for burial may be given by the owner of the lot, or a family representative designated by the lot owner.
B. Registration: Before any deceased person may be buried in the city cemetery, the relatives or person having charge of the deceased shall provide the city treasurer with a written statement which shall be filed by the city treasurer, which statement shall contain, if known, information about the deceased regarding his or her name, when and where born, the date and cause of death, date of burial, name of cemetery and the description of the location of the grave.
C. Vaults: It shall be unlawful for any person to be buried in the cemetery unless the casket shall be placed in a vault made of concrete. All urns shall be placed in a vault approved by the city. There shall be no more than two (2) urns buried per lot or gravesite. There shall be only one grave marker per plot or gravesite, regardless if there is one or two (2) urns buried therein.
1. All caskets shall be placed in a vault made of concrete;
2. Ferron City will not be liable for any damages resulting from the use of a Fire Proof Safe or a vault made of Polypropylene;
3. The following types of vaults are to be used for burial of an urn:
a. Concrete;
b. Fire Proof Safe; or
c. Polypropylene.
D. Grave Specifications: Specifications for graves are five feet by ten feet (5' x 10') plots with eighteen inches (18") left between graves and a two foot (2') area left between graves head to foot.
1. Piggybacking: There shall be no more than one body buried per plot or single gravesite. The practice commonly known as "piggybacking", wherein one body is buried directly above another, shall not be allowed. It shall be unlawful to "piggyback" or bury an urn on top of another grave or to the foot of an existing grave.
E. Headstones Or Markers: The base or footer of a single headstone or marker shall be smaller than four feet (4') in width to avoid interference with adjoining plots.
1. No marker, monument, item or structure of any kind may be placed in the cemetery that is not dedicated to the memory of an actual, named deceased human being.
2. If any marker, monument, effigy, or other item or structure of any kind or any inscription thereon is placed on any lot, is deemed by the city to be of an offensive nature, unsightly or improper, the city reserves the right to remove, at the expense of the grave space owner, or request the grave space owner to remove, correct or repair the problem within the time designated by the city.
F. Unlawful Acts:
1. It is an infraction, subject to penalty as provided in section 1-4-1 of this code, for any person to:
a. Disinter any body buried in any cemetery, except under the direction of the city who shall, before disinterment, require written permission from both the southeastern district health officer and the owner of the lot or his or her heirs, which written authorization shall be filed and preserved in a record kept for such purposes.
b. Disinter or remove the body of a person who has died from a contagious disease within two (2) years after the date of burial, unless the body was buried in a hermetically sealed casket or vault and is found to be so encased at the time of disinterment.
2. It is an infraction, subject to penalty as provided in section 1-4-1
of this code, to inter anything other than the remains of human bodies in cemeteries.
3. It is an infraction, subject to penalty as provided in section 1-4-1
of this code, to bury the body of any person within the city, except in the city cemetery or a private cemetery, unless by special permission of the city council under such rules and regulations that it may prescribe. (1979 Code §§ 8-221 through 8-224; amd. Ord. 5-9-95, 5-9-1995; 1998 Code; Res. 2002-1, 2-6-2002, eff. 3-1-2002; Res. 2007-2, 5-10-2007; Res. 2016-8, 11-10-2016)