(A) Visiting hours. The cemeteries shall be open for visitation purposes from sunrise to sunset daily.
(B) Use of roadways and entrances.
(1) No person shall use the roadways of the cemeteries as public thoroughfares for passage through the cemetery or for any other purpose, other than for attendance at funerals, memorial occasions, visits to graves or cemetery lots, or other similar uses and purposes, including official business.
(2) No person shall climb over, go through or go over any wall, fence or hedge in the cemetery, trespass in any manner upon cemetery property, or enter or leave the cemetery at any place other than at regularly established gateways or entrances and at such times as are established by the city for visitation.
(C) Pedestrians.
(1) It is strictly prohibited to write upon, deface or injure any memorial, fence or other structure within the cemetery.
(2) Persons visiting a cemetery or attending a funeral are strictly prohibited from gathering flowers, either wild or cultivated, breaking or injuring any tree, shrub or plant, or feeding or disturbing the birds or other animal life within the cemetery.
(D) Vehicles.
(1) Admission. Admission of vehicles upon cemetery roads shall be permitted as a privilege and not as a right inherent to the ownership of interment rights in a burial space
(2) Entrance. No vehicle shall enter a cemetery except through a regular entrance maintained for such purpose.
(3) Driving on lots and lawns. No person shall drive a vehicle over cemetery lots or upon cemetery lawns unless the grass area is designated as a parking area.
(4) Parking. No person shall park any vehicle so as to obstruct any cemetery driveway, and no person shall drive or park any vehicle on any burial space. Parked vehicles must not be left with the engine running when the driver is not in the vehicle.
(5) Speed. No person shall drive a vehicle at a speed in excess of ten miles per hour.
(E) Miscellaneous rules of conduct.
(1) Dogs and other animals. Dogs and other domestic animals or non-domestic animals are prohibited on cemetery grounds or in cemetery buildings, except that this prohibition shall not apply to service animals accompanied by their owner.
(2) Disrespecting grave sites. No person shall disrespect or desecrate grave sites by lying, sitting, or standing on top of markers, monuments or any other memorial structures.
(3) Disturbing funerals. No loud talking shall be permitted within hearing distance of funeral services.
(4) Peddling or soliciting. Peddling of flowers or plants or soliciting the sale of any commodity is prohibited within the boundaries of the cemeteries.
(5) Littering. The throwing of trash or litter on the drives, paths, lawns, lots or any other part of the cemetery grounds is prohibited.
(6) Signs and advertisements. No signs, notices or advertisements of any kind shall be allowed in a cemetery unless placed by the city.
(7) Firearms. No firearms shall be permitted in the cemeteries except for ceremonial purposes by a military escort accompanying the funeral of a veteran or a law enforcement officer.
(8) Other inappropriate activities. No person shall disturb the peace or disrupt the proper order of any cemetery by yelling, fighting, running, engaging in games or sports activities, engaging in horseplay, playing loud music, or using offensive words or insults. No person shall loiter or wander aimlessly about on cemetery grounds.
(F) Vandalism or injury to cemeteries.
(1) In accordance with Florida Statutes, any person who willfully and knowingly destroys, mutilates, defaces, injures or removes any monument, marker, gravestone or other item intended for the protection, identification or ornamentation of any monument or gravestone or willfully destroys, mutilates, removes, cuts, breaks or injures any tree, shrub, or plant placed or being within the boundaries of the cemeteries is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable as provided in Florida Statutes.
(2) Any person who willfully and knowingly disturbs the contents of a grave is guilty of a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided by Florida Statutes.
(3) This division (F) shall not apply to any person authorized by law to remove or disturb a monument or gravestone or the contents of a grave.
(Ord. 1391, passed 10-21-10)