Library Board - Regular Meeting

Ready?

Okay. I've got 05:30, so I'd like to call to order the cemetery commission meeting for Monday, December 8. And we'll just take roll call. Amanda Roddy is not here. Mike Christine? Here. Don Brown? Here. Ed Rathor? Here. Nico Camacho is not here. Terry Tim? Here. And I am Pat Gralke. So we have a quorum. Public comments is number two. Seeing no one from the public, we will move on. The next item is approval of minutes of 10/13/2025. Is there a motion to approve those minutes?

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as I have no issues with them.

Second. Okay. Mike has moved to approve the minutes, second by Ed. All in favor, aye. Aye. Opposed? None. Motion passes. Number four is number four is new business, which is review and act on proposed pricing changes for 2026. And I know in our packet, there is a cover sheet about the price changes, and then there's also a spreadsheet about proposed pricing changes.

So, hopefully, you've had a chance to look at those, and then Karen will explain a little more. Yep. Yep. Here's Rico. Hey, Rico. Hey.

Hey. How's it going? We

just got started. We're just on a new business side now. So you can reflect that. Rico is here.

Thank you.

So,

hopefully, you've had a chance to take a look at the cover sheet and the proposal. So we are looking at increasing most of the rates, or that's the proposal for 2026. As we're considering the economic and budget landscape, the pricing schedule takes into account raising wages, benefits, insurance costs, as well as increasing costs of our supplies and services. In addition, the cemetery and city budget challenges are being considered, including the suggestion that the city general fund contribution to the cemetery fund be reduced. So currently, that is for many years, it's been $888,661.

And with the five year budget financial management plan and the challenges that we're facing, we're quite sure that the cemetery will be affected one way or another. So if you look at the the chart, it's kind of by category. And the pricing recommendations for by category range from, like, 2% to 10%. So the first page shows the property rights, which would be the graves, the niches, the crypts, benches, rocks, etcetera, at a 10% increase and then rounded to the nearest five. Rounded up to the nearest five.

The exception in the property rights is the bottom line there where it says second and third right. Currently and what that means is if someone purchases a grave and they would like more than one person to be interred there. So we won't do more than one full body casket, but it's possible to do a casket and then two cremains above or even just up to three cremains in a grave. So essentially, it ends up being you know, if there's two bodies or two people, it's two properties. So it'd be like a a level, b level, c level property.

So we've been charging $2.25 for that second right, And I'm recommending it would be bump it up to $4.50. So, basically, that's they don't have to purchase the grave, but they buy another right to be interred in that grave. There are some cemeteries that their second right, I know, are 50%, 60% of the cost of the grave. And this would equal about 25% if we did that. And then going to the interment right or interment fees, that's recommending a 10% increase across the board for those foundations, 5%.

And then inscriptions, 2%. Except the permit fee, we wouldn't change and the bronze items would increase by 10%. We're seeing a big increase in our costs for those. And over the years, we haven't really kept up with with those bronze costs. And then the burial board for natural burial, percent, and our decoration accessories, 10 except the zinc ground base, which we really haven't kept up with the our increasing costs on that.

I'm recommending 25% increase. And then our other fees, over time, winter surcharge, etcetera, at 5%. And this was based on evaluation of, you know, what our costs are relative to these categories. And then also, looked at our the inflation rate since 2020. It's 25.18%, and we have most of these are like, our properties are about 12% were up.

So this wouldn't even take it over that. Are there questions?

I know it's, Clifford's still doing the, the natural burial board.

Yes.

And that's, whatever their rates are that's covering their rates? Yes. I'm assuming because I don't wanna they're charging us this dollar. I don't want us to be in

the negative over that. I know it's Right.

Becoming more and more popular, but, you know, everything's going up and they wouldn't wanna cheat Blifford or cheat us. Right. Probably not the right word, but I I city wise overall, and I don't wanna speak for Rico, but we sit in the same room and we are always encouraged. And I'll also talk more about this, the alderman's report, just every city department, every city committee, everything is really getting looked at and scrutinized to to come up with savings and keep up with cost of materials. And that's Karen and her staff has done this.

It's kind of overdue on that. You guys have been here a lot longer than I have, but I know my first three years here, we kinda kept things on pace, but now we're we're catching up on that. This is a big step on that. So I'm in favor of all this. I don't really see anything egregious on here.

You know, you've explained, and I know this was a relatively new thing that we didn't really do or talk about, but now it's becoming more and more popular, the second and third right. So that's why there's a higher increase on that as, you know, we've not so didn't frown on. It was really wasn't really done. But now that adding adding on other cremated remains remains in the same family plot is becoming more and more possible through this. And I I think it's a good idea particularly if you have a larger family and really significant sites. Yeah. Is that common?

It's becoming more common, like Mike said. Yes. A lot of inquiries about that.

My family in in Ireland, it was common in here. Like, Irish American, they do it bury the same people under the same headstone. Yeah. Same, like, plot.

Oh, right.

One after the other. So I just wondered if anyone it's interesting that it's becoming and it's understandable given the price of

everything. Right.

Can you go back and tell me one more time? What did you say that we increased 10% that was it 10% that people are utilizing some of the wow. I promise I'm old enough that I went through puberty. The, like, the extra stuff, I hate to say it that way too. Like, the re like what was it? So the zinc ground base, that went up 25% rate. Oh, right. So some of those

And that's because Accessories. Thank you. Yep. The decoration accessories are the cost for that has gone up, we really haven't kept up with the percentage cost.

No. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. I love it. Again, I'm actually going to echo everything he said. My only question is not to get greedy or anything, but how often do do people utilize this service? Oh, I don't know.

Which service? The Like, the wreaths, the

soap bouquets, all of it?

Oh, yeah. So, we just put out about 730 wreaths Oh, wow. In the cemetery. Now many of those are endowed wreaths also, but we do sell a couple 100

Okay.

A year. And I'm not recommending a change in our our charges that we for the wreaths or the silk bouquets because we did increase it last year and we rounded up to the nearest 5%, but the cost is low. So it might have gone up, a few dollars extra. So I think we're and I did find a new provider for our Reese to reduce our costs a little bit for this year. So I think we're fair in keeping those prices the same. Works.

Any other comments or questions? I just and I my understanding is you don't I just wanna make sure we're still kind of in the ballpark with other cemeteries. I don't

know

if you do comparisons or just general We did So we're not totally We did secret shops. Oh, shops. I love it. I was going say And

then when you

and I spoke on

the phone, Karen, it was that we're still fairly lower in the spectrum of Waukesha

at Waukesha. Yeah. You had asked me about, like, St.

Joe's St. Joe's is the city. Because I know there's

only one. Their graves are from 2,000 to 3,000. So even with this, we'd still be Competitive. Yes. Now you're gonna find, depending on the type of cemetery, prices range widely.

And if it's a small rural cemetery, you're gonna see significantly lower prices, and they usually don't have, like, staff either. They might have volunteers or someone comes in and quickly does the lawn mowing, etcetera. But for those that we we did check, we're either right on with the increase or lower. So we have from what we learned, there are some graves that one cemetery is between 5,009 thousand for a grave. But, generally, around 15 to 2,000.

Okay. That's that's good. I just didn't want us to be, like, pricing ourselves out. But, otherwise, I think the increases are a good idea. If there's no other question, would someone like to make a motion?

I'll make a motion to accept the proposed budget for 2026.

I'll second.

Okay. It's been moved

moved by Don and seconded by Rico to approve the proposed 2026 price changes for the free Home Cemetery. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Moves? Passes unanimously. Thank you, Karen, and thank you for the easy to read spreadsheet. All right. The next item on the agenda is the cemetery director's report, which, again, you've also got a sheet on that. Yeah.

So I do not have a P and L. I wasn't able to get that. That's done by someone in finance who wasn't available. And I've been talking with finance director to probably change up the format of that to be more reflective of the budget format for next year. So and then our services summary just kinda shows where we're at through October.

So through October, year to date, we've had a 173 services, which is already more than we had last year. And so next meeting, I'll have a final November and December in here. We had about 10 in November and December. It's early.

K.

And then some other items, and I intended to put it on the agenda, so it'll be on the next agenda. Friends would like to run a third annual tombstone trot next year in October, but that will be on the agenda

for official

vote in February. We are getting new electric to our streetlight pole on Prairie Avenue. That should be done by the end of the year. And then the tuck pointing bid has been awarded for the chapel building. Some of the parapets need to be taken apart and rebuilt and then updating the tuck pointing or repointing where needed in the chapel.

I'm guessing that it won't get done until spring. And then our veteran area that the Friends is raising money for, hopefully, we'll have that all installed by Memorial Day next year. They're doing a good job of raising dollars. There's a sign out there by Section 8, and there have been a couple contributions based on that sign, which were very generous. So we're expecting that we'll have the funds to complete that by Memorial Day.

And I did have a question, but I do think you know, I've been bringing the paper documents, and I just wanted to check. Does everybody want that? Or does that we don't have the iPads anymore? You prefer to have I'd like to

have the paper.

The packet? Okay. Yeah.

Oh, there's an iPad?

What's that?

I don't carry the rest.

Yeah. They used to have them.

We used to have the iPads for everyone, but we don't. So but if everyone wants, I'll continue doing that. But Whatever's easier for you. Okay. Alright. That's it for now.

Alright. Next is Friends of Prairie Home Cemetery precedence report. Joe is not here. Anything?

Well, we're having our fundraiser tomorrow night. Right?

At Culver's Oh my gosh. Yes. Yeah. Tomorrow night at Culver's on Sunset is the fundraiser for the Friends. And I believe it's You notice

the time slot? I'm not sure on that. We Yeah. Five days.

That's right.

If it's gonna do like Culver's always does with the school district, it's about the same. Yeah. Yeah. They even go to nine. Yeah.

Yeah. But make sure you're getting the right time slot. Yeah. We won't get the the credit for it. You know what?

Five to eight.

Yep. Five to eight.

Five to eight. Yeah.

That means it because Culver's does that with all the schools and different. So

Yeah. So please support the friends. Thank you.

Can I just I don't know if anyone knows? About how many runners did they have for the Tombstone Track?

Do you know? The registrations were roughly the same. It was about one ninety Okay. Roughly. Because it was rainy and windy that day.

Was there.

I think there were about a 120. Okay. That's still good. That was a lousy.

That was a low. Yeah.

It's a

bad morning.

Well, we just had to move out inside. The sponsors moved inside, but we just pivoted and it turned out really nice. Good.

All right. Cemetery Commission President's report. I have no report. Alderman's report.

Thank you guys for I love working with you guys for the last five years and Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. I'm looking forward to working with you again. And Rico, thanks for joining us. You're you bring some new ideas and some great questions to this. So hopefully, the new mayor will keep us on here for another year. Yeah. Right. Before the new mayor may meet. And biggest thing is countywide, we attended a celebrate Waukesha breakfast and

Oh, okay.

From the county on down, it's they're really looking at numbers and making sure we're not, you know, foolish in one area and wise in the other. Just basically looking at all departments. And this county is doing the same thing that we're doing. And so, basically, that's it. And contact your alderman if you guys live in the city. Contact your alderman. The city is putting on, I think, four, almost like a town hall meeting. Oh, yes. In various we did it last year, I think, two years ago, at the library and city hall where citizens of the city of Waukesha are invited to come on in. They don't have the dates yet, but just basically, what do you like about the city?

What don't you like about the city? What do we spend too much money on? What don't we spend enough money on? We actually really need, we need citizens' reviews because by the time city staff and alders make reviews, oh, it's the worst thing you've ever done. Well, we're we're trying to do things, and we need input where we should focus our energies on just like what Karen and her staff are doing citywide. So the thing that is, and remember, Christmas time, a lot of the holiday cooking, the mayor always says, watch out for the fog, fats, oils, and greases. Don't put your fat, oil, and grease down the drain.

Oh, god. Yeah. Was like, oh.

Everybody did this. Yeah. That's that's all I have.

Well, I was just gonna say thank you guys. Yeah. This has been my first couple of months in this. This has been wonderful, so thank you so much. And, yeah, this has been a great transition. Really easy to work with, and it's really easy because I just follow this guy, so everything he said works. I try. I try. He does well. So, yeah, thank you guys. And also, really do I mean, based on what he said with the county when we were there, I think what you did here financially was great great move. It's gonna be really take it was gonna help out a lot.

It should.

Yeah. It should. So thank you. That was huge.

Okay. Alright.

Item number six is referrals. I assume there's none. Our next meeting will be set for February 9. That would be the second February or the second Monday in February. And if there's something else, need an adjournment. Someone like to move to Motion to adjourn. Okay. Mike makes a motion to adjourn. Is there

a second?

Second by Ed. All in favor, aye. Aye. And Merry Christmas to all.

Merry Christmas to Happy New Year. Thank you, everybody. Happy birthday to

you.