By STEPHANIE UJHELYI sujhelyi@the-review.com
Published: July 7, 2017 3:00 AM
Excerpts:
"Alliance Auditor Kevin Knowles' $80,000 transfer from the general fund into the Alliance City Cemetery coffers has become an annual ritual, despite the fact that more than $700,000 appears to sit just out of reach. However, as a fiscal distress designation by the state of Ohio looms, city officials don't have that extra cemetery infusion just laying around.
Since 1970, cemetery associations or companies have been required to deposit at least 10 percent of its gross proceeds from the sale of interment rights into a separate endowment, or perpetual care, fund, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce's website.
In the case of the Alliance City Cemetery, Parks Director Kim Cox explained Tuesday that 27.5 percent of all grave lot sales are placed in the perpetual care fund, which doesn't appear to be required under Ohio law for municipally owned or political subdivisions.
During a special Parks, Recreation and Public Lands board meeting, she noted that no one seems to know the answer regarding if and when this entity, which was asked to bundle together cuts in $50,000 increments in case they are needed, can touch any of those perpetual care funds."
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