LIBERTY - The Liberty Township trustees approve a motion to send $125,000 to fund the Belmont Park Cemetery after a decrease in burials in recent years.

Liberty Township fiscal officer Matthew Connelly says the Belmont Park Cemetery fund will be used to pay its employees' salaries and maintain the property's buildings and other structures.

"There's a mausoleum that needs extensive repairs to the roof, and that will be the major expense this year that it will cover," he said.

The funds come from the cemetery's endowment funds from its previous ownership, which passed the property over to the township in August after the cemetery's expenses outweighed its income. 

"I believe that cemetery runs at expenses between $300,000 to $400,000 per year, but it only makes $150,000 to $200,000 per year," he said.

The endowment was established as a Permanent Cemetery Endowment Fund, which Connelly estimates is worth over $2 million.

Connelly says interest accrued from investments in the endowment fund, as well as potential public funds, will help keep the cemetery operational.

Part of the $125,000 motion includes a decree that the board unanimously determines that the cemetery cannot be funded through the Belmont Park Fund alone and must be supplemented with the above sources of income.

Connelly adds that a decrease in the number of burials and an increase in the number of cremations have directly contributed to the cemetery's loss of revenue.

"The family takes the urn or box with the ashes home and puts it on a shelf or curio cabinet, so the cemetery doesn't earn any money on those types of methods of burying somebody," he said.

Connelly adds that the township has considered the addition of sprinkle gardens, columbaria, and a pet cemetery to increase the cemetery's revenue.

A columbarium is a structure that holds urns.

Connelly says he believes it is important to maintain the 100-acre property which currently holds over 31,000 buried bodies.

"Just to honor those families whose members are buried there," he said.

The 100-acre property currently holds over 31,000 buried bodies