Cemeteries
The Town of Forest City maintains two cemeteries within the corporate limits. Cool Springs Cemetery and Alexander Cemetery. There are available plots at both locations.
Memorial Day for Cool Springs Cemetery is Mother's Day. Memorial Day at the Alexander Cemetery is the 3rd Sunday in May.
Cemetery maps and records are kept in the City Clerk's office located in Town Hall at 128 N. Powell Street. Office hours are 8:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M., Monday through Friday. Please call 828-248-5202 for information.
GRAVE COSTS
GENERAL RULES
MAINTENANCE AND OPERATION
PROHIBITED ACTS
MOTOR CARS AND VEHICLES
AMENDMENT
GRAVE COSTS
Graves cost $600.00 per grave for residents of the Town of Forest City.
The non-resident fee is $1,000.00 per grave.
In-city residency status of the purchaser or the deceased must be established at the time the grave is purchased.
Costs are subject to change.
GENERAL RULES
(A) All persons when within the cemetery are reminded that the grounds thereof are sacredly dedicated to the interment and repose of the dead and strict observance of the decorum due to such a memorial will be expected and required by all.
(B) The town reserves the right to determine, establish, modify, alter, or change the grade of each and every lot, road, driveway, pathway, or part thereof, and it shall not be liable to anyone for any such action. Individual graves shall not be disturbed.
(C) No cemetery lot owner shall make any change or alteration in or on any lot, including the removal or change in position of any memorial or marker, removal of trees or shrubs without the written consent of the Town Council.
(D) Opening and closing of graves shall be done by a state licensed undertaker, using commonly accepted practices to insure that the site is restored to its natural state.
(E) Concrete grave liners, vaults or steel vaults must be used for all casket burials, located at a minimum depth of 52 inches below the surface.
(F) Besides being subject to these rules and regulations, all interments, disinterments, and removals are made subject to the orders and laws of the properly constituted authorities of the county and state.
(G) Once a casket containing a body is within the confines of the cemetery, no funeral director, or his embalmer, assistant, employee, or agent shall be permitted to open the casket or to touch the body without the consent of the legal representative of the deceased, or a relative in charge of the funeral, or without a court order.
(H) The right is reserved by the town to insist upon at least 24 hours written notice to the Town Clerk prior to any interment and at least one week's written notice prior to any disinterment or removal.
Penalty see 10.99
MAINTENANCE AND OPERATION
It is the basic intent of this chapter to insure that the cemetery be maintained in its natural state to the greatest extent possible. It is with this thought in mind that the following rules are adopted.
(A) No coping, curbing, fencing, hedging, borders, corner post, or enclosure of any kind will be allowed around any grave site. No walks of brick, tile, cinders, stone, sand, cement, gravel or wood, or other materials will be allowed on any lot except a foot marker to be flush with the ground and a head stone.
(B) No trinkets, toys, shells, sand, or anything which, in the opinion of the Town Council is unsightly, will be allowed on any grave. All materials of this type will be removed without notice and the town will not be responsible for the loss or destruction of the same.
(C) It shall be the responsibility of the legal representative of the deceased, or the relative in charge of the funeral or their appointed representative or the undertaker in charge of the funeral to remove all flowers or other items evidencing a burial, within 30 days after the interment.
(D) Cut flowers, wreaths, baskets, designs and frames may be placed on graves for Christmas, Easter and Memorial Day. It is the responsibility of the donor to make arrangements to have them removed within 14 days after the day.
(E) The following persons, articles and animals are to be excluded from the cemetery grounds and are subject to removal or rejected there from:
(1) Children under 12 years of age unless attended by an adult person responsible for their conduct.
(2) Delivery trucks, wagons, and vehicles of any conveyance generally used for hauling goods, except for delivering to the cemetery flowers for an interment or to be placed on a grave and trucks of a licensed memorialist.
(3) Persons passing through the cemetery, except for the bona fide purpose of visiting a grave, or to attend to cemetery business matters with an authorized representative of the town Council.
(4) Persons carrying firearms, except officers of the law or members of a military detail, in attendance upon an interment.
(5) Materials of any description, except cut flowers, wreaths, and potted plants at times permitted.
(6) Bicycles and motorcycles unless a special permit is first issued by the Town Council.
(7) Any intoxicating liquors or soft drinks.
(8) Dogs, whether on a leash or in an automobile.
Penalty, see 10.99
PROHIBITED ACTS
The following actions are not permitted in or on the grounds:
(A) Loud, boisterous, or obscene language or whistling and singing, except when part of a memorial or interment service.
(B) Improper conduct or unseemly noise.
(C) Picnicing, lunching, camping, hunting, playing, loitering, lounging, or any other recreational activity.
(D) Cutting, picking or pulling flowers or plants whether cultivated or wild, breaking branches from any shrub or tree, scratching, marring, defacing, injuring, or disturbing any marker, building, or any other thing being a part of or placed or used in connection with the cemetery grounds or any grave, pathway, or roadway therein.
(E) Putting or depositing paper, rubbish, dead or wilted flowers, shrubs, plants, branches or any unsightly or unseemly thing on any grave, walk, drive, or other part of the cemetery, except in receptacles provided for that purpose.
(F) Peddling, begging, soliciting, or collecting.
(G) The display or distribution of signs, cards, handbills, circulars, or anything relating to any business, profession, office or other profession, office or other matters.
(H) Children (and adults also) shall not play on cemetery property.
(I) The placing of flowers, floral or other designs and things in alcohol or other preservatives, or under glass, or other enclosures.
(J) Fishing, hunting, trapping, molesting, or killing of any birds, waterfowl, or game of any kind.
Penalty, see 10.99
MOTOR CARS AND VEHICLES
The following actions are prohibited.
A. The driving of cars or other vehicles through or in the cemetery grounds at speed in excess of ten miles per hour.
B. Driving any motor car of any vehicle across or upon any grave or lot or parking the same therein.
C. Parking or leaving any motor car or any vehicle in any driveway within the cemetery grounds at such location or in such position as to prevent any other car or vehicle from passing the same, and if so parked or left, the vehicle will be removed, without notice and at the expense of the owner,
(D) Leaving a motor car or vehicle parked on the grounds of the cemetery between the hours of 8:00 PM and 8:00 AM.
AMENDMENT
The Town Council may amend, change, or expand this chapter or establish further regulations regarding the management or maintenance of the cemetery at any time consistent with its authority and the existing state laws.