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Controversial cemetery rules revised
Posted: 09.23.2009 at 5:01 PM
John Garlock

John Garlock is 6 and 10pm news anchor with KTVO.

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CINCINNATI, IOWA -- A southeast Iowa cemetery ordinance that's created some controversy in recent months has now been amended.

Some residents of Cincinnati, Iowa raised a stink earlier this year when the City all of a sudden started enforcing parts of a 18-year-old city ordinance governing Pleasant Hill Cemetery, parts that had never been enforced before.

The 1991 ordinance prohibited personal maintenance of cemetery plots.

Cincinnati resident Margie Stewart has maintained her 15-month-old son's grave for the past 29-and-a-half years.

The newly revised ordinance now allows for personal maintenance of gravesites, but applicants have to sign a couple of forms assuming responsibility for any injury or property damage that might happen during the maintenance of the plots.

Applicants also have to submit a maintenance plan to the City of Cincinnati.

Stewart told KTVO she wants to do the upkeep herself so she'll know it's done right.

"We mowed four times in April, and the city mowed none. So, if I could only imagine leaving my baby out in a hayfield or something like that, so I just feel better knowing it's taken care of and kept up," said Stewart.

Even though there are now more hoops to jump through, Stewart says she's just happy that the issue is resolved.

During the controversy, the former mayor and city clerk in Cincinnati resigned.

KTVO could not reach current Cincinnati Mayor Carl Adams for comment Wednesday.

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