Either the Mayor or the Clerk is authorized to execute the necessary evidence of a conveyance of a Grave which shall be known as an "Easement Deed" in order to effect the conveyance of a Grave in the Village Cemetery. A Grave shall not be conveyed to an individual who is not a resident or who is not a direct family member of an interred person of the Village. Such conveyance becomes effective only when the proper Village authority accepts valid payment in accordance with Section 959.06 and the Easement Deed is fully executed.
(a) Burials per Grave. Only one Burial per Grave is permitted unless otherwise specified in this Chapter.
(b) Grave Easement Deed. The Easement Deed conveys Burial use rights only. The ownership of the land upon which the Grave is located remains with the Village. All Easement Deeds shall plainly display the words "such Easement Deed is non-transferable except to the Village of Gates Mills pursuant to Section 959.03(c) of the Codified Ordinances of the Village of Gates Mills." The number of Graves that may be sold to one person is four (4).
(c) Transferring a Grave. No transfer of a Village Cemetery Grave shall be permitted except to the Village as hereinafter provided. Only the Village may sell a Village Cemetery Grave to an individual. The Village may repurchase a conveyed Grave for the original purchase price, and the Village shall have the right to re-convey a repurchased Grave.
(d) Reclamation of a Grave. The Village may reclaim a Grave when no Interment has ever been made in the Grave for more than seventy-five (75) years by sending a notice to the recorded purchaser of the Grave by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the address supplied by the purchaser or purchaser's successor in interest of the Village's offer to repurchase the Grave for the original amount paid for the Grave. If the recorded purchaser of the Grave, or a successor in interest to the Grave, refuses in writing to sell the Grave back to the Village, the right to use the Grave shall remain with that purchaser or the purchaser's successor in interest. If the notice comes back to the Village as being unclaimed or refused, or the Village receives no written refusal to sell the Grave back to the Village within sixty (60) days after the notice has been delivered or attempted to be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, the Village shall publish the notice provided for in this section once in a newspaper of general circulation in the Village. If sixty (60) days has passed from the date of such publication in the newspaper without any written refusal by the purchaser or the purchaser's successor in interest to the Grave to resell the Grave to the Village, then the Village shall reclaim the Grave and the authority to re-convey the Grave. If, after the Village has reclaimed the Grave, the
purchaser or the purchaser's successor in interest notifies the Village in writing of that person's desire to retain ownership of the Grave or to sell the Grave back to the Village, the Village shall pay the purchaser or purchaser's successor in interest the original amount paid for the Grave and the Village shall retain all rights and authority to re-convey the Grave to another person, and the subsequent purchaser of the Grave shall retain all rights under the Easement Deed issued to the subsequent purchaser. (Ord. 2016-28. Passed 1-10-17.)