(a) All deeds for lots shall be executed on behalf of the City by the Mayor and the City Clerk. Any person desiring to purchase a burial space in any City cemetery shall make application and pay the required amount for the lot selected to the City Clerk. Upon the purchase of any burial space, the City Clerk shall prepare and deliver to the purchaser a duly executed deed for said burial space. Such deed shall convey to the purchaser the right of interment only, and shall be held subject to the provisions of this chapter, existing rules and regulations, and such ordinances, rules and regulations as may hereafter be adopted by the City Council.
(b) No purchase of cemetery lots or parts thereof shall be made for speculation purposes. No cemetery lot or part thereof shall be transferred from one owner to another for more than thc original cost, and the transfer must be recorded at the office of the City Clerk.
(c) The Council shall, from time to time, establish by resolution the amounts to be paid for cemetery lots, which amounts shall include a sufficient sum to provide for perpetual care of the lots so sold. The City may accept sums donated by any testator, trustee or other person for the care of the cemetery or any lots therein. The City shall be obligated to maintain and care for all lots in the cemetery for which perpetual care has been paid except as otherwise provided by the statutes of the State of Michigan. Any money available in any perpetual care fund or other cemetery fund belonging to the City shall be used for such cemetery purposes as the City Council shall determine.
(d) Purchasers of cemetery lots or parts thereof are subject to these rules and regulations and any changes, alterations, amendments or modifications thereof made and adopted by the Cemetery Board.
(e) The Cemetery Board shall establish the grade of all lots, lawns and avenues and shall supervise all improvements within any City cemetery, before and after interments, and no lot shall be filled or raised above the established grade.
(f) The planting of trees, sodding, surveying and all general improvements to any City cemetery shall be controlled, authorized and directed by the Cemetery Board.
(g) Whenever, in the opinion of the Cemetery Board, one or more cemetery lots need raising or lowering in order to beautify or improve the general appearance of the area where said lot or lots is located, the Board shall have full power and authority to do so without the consent of the lot owner. In all such cases the Superintendent shall restore the lot to as good a condition as before said raising or lowering, or as near thereto as possible, and said raising or lowering shall be without expense to the lot owner, unless requested by the owner.
(h) No mounds shall be erected on lots or graves which shall interfere with or impede the unrestricted use of a lawn mower.
(Ord. 34. Passed 10-20-75.)
(i) The digging, opening, refilling and trimming of graves, the removal of bodies from one place to another in any City cemetery, and the constructing of graves shall be done solely by the Superintendent and the employees of the City department under his or her direction.
(Ord. 34B. Passed 4-5-76.)
(j) Individual taste or ornamentation of cemetery lots is permitted and will be respected, but the right to remove or modify any improvement on any lot which the Superintendent considers injurious to the general appearance or well being of any City cemetery, or the adjacent lot, is reserved to the Superintendent. He or she shall be the sole judge as to when said improvements shall be removed or modified, either before or after interment.
(k) The Superintendent and the City Clerk shall, during their working hours, make available to the public the schedule of prices on all cemetery lots.
(Ord. 34. Passed 10-20-75.)
(l) Foundations for monuments and markers shall be constructed under the supervision of the Superintendent and in accordance with cemetery regulations if constructed by other than cemetery personnel.
(Ord. 34B. Passed 4-5-76.)