The Lebanon City Council approved an agreement to provide maintenance and operating support to the Lebanon City Cemetery at its regular meeting Monday.
According to background information provided to the council by City Administrator Troy Schulte, the 20-acre cemetery, located along Lynn Street from Washington Avenue to Brice Street, is currently operated by the Odd Fellows and Masons.
“The cemetery, because of limited space, and therefore limited burials, is quickly exhausting its available reserves and is expected to run out of funds for maintenance and operations in less than three years,” Schulte wrote. “Under state law, a cemetery that ceases operations defaults its ownership to the lowest level of government where the cemetery is located, and in this case it would be the City of Lebanon. If the city does not accept ownership, ownership of the cemetery would move to the next lowest level of government, which in this case would then be Laclede County.”
The city has budgeted $60,000 for the Lebanon City Cemetery for the 2027 fiscal year.
