City reviews sexton’s contract
EL DORADO — The El Dorado City Council Finance Committee is considering a contract for services for the sexton who looks after Woodlawn Cemetery.
Burney Wilson, who has been the sexton for Woodlawn since 1994, petitioned the committee earlier this week for a contract for services with a flat, monthly rate of $500.
He also explained what the job entails.
The committee initially discussed the matter in late January after Mayor Frank Hash said he felt the $500 monthly rate “was too high.”
Hash said he had presented a counteroffer of $500 per quarter, or $2,000 per year.
Hash said then that he had reviewed invoices that have been paid to Wilson over the past several years and found that the most the city had paid Wilson in one year was $1,500, per an hourly rate.
In 2016, Hash said Wilson was paid for six or seven hours of work.
“It’s not a tremendous amount of time,” Hash said.
He said Wilson declined the $2,000 offer and Wilson was subsequently invited to present his case to the finance committee.
For 23 years, Wilson has kept up with plot locations and owners in assisting families and local funeral homes.
He told city officials Monday that he has performed similar work for other local cemeteries, including Arlington Memorial Park, which adjoins the city-owned Woodlawn in the area of Mosby and Champagnolle.
The two cemeteries are divided by a flag pole, with Woodlawn located north of the pole.
Wilson said he frequently provides assistance over the phone.
He noted that calls can take up to an hour or more, and he uses his own cellular phone, which he
purchased expressly for the job.
He said he also uses his own vehicle and is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“So, I can get called out on a Sunday afternoon to go to the cemetery to meet a mother with a stillborn child inside her, and she’s on her way to the hospital because they’re going to take the baby, and the burial is on Monday,” Wilson said.
Additionally, Wilson said he pays $338 a month for liability insurance “just in case.”
Supervising the resetting of headstones when they have been knocked over on occasion is also part of his duties, Wilson said.
He acknowledged that he did not rack up many billable hours in 2016, noting that the need for his services at Woodlawn has slowed over the years.
“It’s nothing compared to what it’s been in the past. In the past, I averaged 30 to 40 hours a year,” Wilson said.
Alderman Dianne Hammond said Wilson was paid $877.50 for six and a half billable hours last year.
Wilson and city officials explained that the city stopped selling plots in Woodlawn in the midaughts because space was tight.
“There are no (sellable) lots available. Paupers’ spaces are about the only thing out there,” Hash said.
Wilson said about 1,000 spaces could be recovered if the city takes legal action to do so.
He said several spaces have been sold in 10-grave lots, adding that only one person is buried in some of the lots.
“The family has moved off and has been gone for two generations, and they’re not coming back,” Wilson said. “The family still owns it, and the city could file a quiet title if you want to and file for those spaces.”
City officials agreed that it was a step they did not want to take.
“That’s like going back and doing eminent domain on those lots, and that’s not something we want to do,” Hammond said.
Wilson said he was paid monthly until 2005 when the city moved to the invoicing system.
Prior to monthly billing, he said he was paid an hourly rate until he approached the city council to ask for backpay he said was owed to him at the time.
He said records for Woodlawn are “sketchy at best.”
Hammond said former Mayor Bobby Beard sorted out the matter by doing away with a $10 fee for inquiries at the cemetery in 2005 or 2006 and hiring a surveyor to clean up cemetery records and compile the information onto a CD that is maintained at City Hall.
“It hasn’t been has been updated since then,” she said.
Alderman Billy Blann asked what services are needed for a sexton at Woodlawn.
“When someone thinks they have a lot out there, and there’s someone who needs to be buried, Burnie Wilson has sorted that out, but that’s rapidly diminishing,” Hash said.
“If someone thinks they have a lot out there, can we charge them?” Blann asked.
Hash suggested that the city could consider
“When someone thinks they have a lot out there, and there’s someone who needs to be buried, Burnie Wilson has sorted that out, but that’s rapidly diminishing.” Mayor Frank Hash
charging funeral homes for the service, but for people who have deeds for cemetery space, there is an expectation for a sexton “to make sure what needs to be done gets done.”
“Whether it’s marking graves or making sure graves get backfilled,” Hash said.
Wilson said some information, including descriptions of the lots and blocks, are available on websites such as www.findagrave.com. He said the information is maintained by the website.
Wilson requested a contract for services, saying that if he is only going to be paid for six or seven hours per year, he will no longer remain on call 24/7 or use his personal cellular phone or vehicle to perform the sexton duties.
Alderman Willie McGhee asked if the rest of the finance committee could view data pertaining to payments, invoices and cemetery records before making a decision on Wilson’s request.
Hammond agreed, saying that she did not expect the committee to immediately act on the request.