A. Burials: Before any deceased person is buried in a cemetery within the City, a death certificate properly issued by the Utah Bureau of Vital Statistics shall be required by the Cemetery Superintendent. After burial, the Cemetery Superintendent 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.
B. Burial Permit Required: It shall be unlawfulfor any person to bury the body of a deceased person in a cemetery within the City without first obtaining a certificate of Burial Right for the Plot used or producing satisfactory evidence of a right to burial based on a properly acquired certificate of Burial Right.
C. Registration Of Burials: Before any deceased person may be buried in a cemetery within the City, the relatives or person having charge of the deceased shall provide the City Recorder with a written statement which shall be filed by the City Recorder, 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, the name of the attending physician, date of burial, name of cemetery and the description of the location of the grave.
D. Burials And Disinterment:
1. It is a Class B misdemeanor, 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 Cemetery Superintendent who shall, before disinterment, require written permission from both the Southwest Health Department and the owner of the Burial Right to the Plot, 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 incased at the time of disinterment.
2. It is a Class B Misdemeanor, subject to penalty as provided in section 1-4-1 of this code, to inter anything other than the remains of human bodies in a Cemetery located within the City.
3. It is a Class B Misdemeanor, subject to penalty as provided in section 1-4-1 of this code, to bury the body of any person within the municipal boundaries of the City except in a cemetery, unless by special permission of the City Council under such rules and regulations that it may prescribe.
E. Cremations:
1. Any single Plot within the cemetery may occupy multiple cremation urns. Urn burials shall include a placard on the surface above the urn denoting name, birth and death dates of deceased person.
2. Burials eligible with a casket and urn(s) are permitted only in areas of a cemetery designated by the Cemetery Superintendent in the cemetery plat, subject to the following restrictions:
a. A casket cannot be placed above an urn.
b. If an urn is the first, by date, to be placed in a plot, then there can be no casket interred at a later date.
c. Urn burials must comply with the limitations set forth in subsection E.1., above.
d. Urn placement is subject to approval by Cemetery Superintendent.
3. Scattering cremation ashes on a purchased cemetery plot is permitted subject to the approval of the Cemetery Superintendent and placement of identification marker.
F. Vaults Required:
1. Unless in writing waived by the Cemetery Superintendent, it shall be unlawful for any person to lie buried in the cemetery unless the casket shall be placed in a vault made of concrete or of such other material approved by the City Council, substantially constructed and covered with a similar durable material.
2. No wood shall be used as a permanent part of the construction of any part of the vault.
G. Sale Subject To Rules: Every Burial Right sold is subject to rules and regulations that have been or may be adopted. The rules and regulations shall be subject to such changes as are found necessary for the protection of Burial Right owners, the remains of the dead and the preservation of the cemetery as determined by the City Council, with input from the Cemetery Superintendent.
H. Care Reserved: The City reserves the right to enter upon any plot or gravesite and to perform all work necessary for the care and upkeep of all plots and graves in its cemeteries.
I. Orders And Responsibilities For Errors: Under no circumstances will the City assume responsibilities for errors in opening graves when orders are not given in person with City Staff or the Cemetery Superintendent having the ability to ask questions and verify the accuracy and content of the request.
J. Traffic Rules:
1. The provisions of the City traffic ordinances relative to the operation of vehicles and conduct of pedestrians shall be in effect in the cemetery, except as herein otherwise modified by this chapter.
2. It shall be unlawful for any person to ride or drive within a cemetery owned by the City at a speed greater than five (5) miles per hour.
K. Children: Children under the age of eight (8) years shall not be allowed in cemeteries unless accompanied by their parents or other adults, except for the purposes of attending authorized funerals or, in the company of adults, placing flowers on the grave of a deceased relative or friend, or performing any other customary evidence of respect in accordance with their religious principles.
L. Animals Prohibited: No animal shall be allowed in any cemetery, except in the confines of a vehicle and must be at all times retained within the confines of said vehicle while the vehicle remains in the cemetery.
M. Decorum: Cemetery grounds are sacredly devoted to the interment and repose of the dead. Strict observance of decorum due such a place shall be required of all persons.
N. Injury To Cemetery Property Prohibited:
1. It is a Class B Misdemeanor, subject to penalty as provided in section 1-4-1 of this code, for any person to tie or attempt to tie any horse, animal or motor vehicle to any monument, gravestone, tablet, marker, tree, shrub, fence or enclosure on the premises of cemetery for the purpose of injuring, defacing or attempting the removal of same.
2. It is a Class B Misdemeanor, subject to penalty as provided in section 1-4-1 of this code, for any person to injure, deface, break, destroy or remove any headstone, tombstone, monument, tree, shrub or any other property in a cemetery.
3. It is an infraction, subject to penalty as provided in section 1-4-1 of this code, for any person to erect or maintain any fence, corner post, bench on which to sit, coping or boundary of any kind, to plant any vegetation upon any plot or plots, street, alley or walk in the cemetery, or to grade the ground or land thereof. The Cemetery Superintendent shall, whenever required, furnish the true lines of any plots according to official cemetery plat and corresponding survey, shall prevent and prohibit any markings of the same, except by official landmarks, and shall prevent and prohibit any grading thereof that might destroy or interfere with the general slope of the land.
O. Headstones and Markers: It shall be unlawful for any person to erect, place or cause to be placed any marker or monument on any plot in the cemetery in violation of the rules and regulations promulgated by the City Council regarding the placement, construction and design of all such markers. Specific requirements for headstones and markers are subject to the City’s current cemetery policy.
P. Additional Rules And Regulations:
1. The City Council may promulgate by ordinance such additional rules and regulations concerning the care, use, operation and maintenance of the cemetery as it shall deem necessary.
2. The Cemetery Superintendent may, from time to time as the City Council deems necessary, direct and publish a booklet of rules and regulations for the convenience of the purchasers of plots in City owned cemeteries. Such rules and regulations shall constitute a part of the terms and conditions under which owners and users may utilize the cemetery and shall form a supplement to this chapter after they have been adopted as official by ordinance of the City Council.
3. Toquerville City’s current cemetery policies shall dictate additional rules and regulations. (2014 Code; amd. Ord. 2017.04, 5-11-2017; Ord. 2021.24, 10-20-2021; Ord. 2023.14, 6-21-2023)