West Central Reporter

City of Jacksonville Cemeteries Board of Managers met April 16.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

The regular monthly meeting of the Jacksonville City Cemeteries Board was called to order at 8:47 a.m. at Kim’s Place, 211 East Court, Jacksonville, Illinois. The meeting was publicly announced by posting and by written notice to the local newspaper and radio stations.

ROLL CALL: Members present were: Chairman Linda Brown, Vicky Scott, Gerald Scott and Kathy Elliott; Superintendent Doug Moore; Treasurer Mary Fergurson and City Clerk Angela Salyer. Also present were Deputy Clerk Sue Thomas and Alderman Joe Lockman. A quorum was declared.

AGENDA: Motion was made by V. Scott, seconded by Elliott, to accept April 25, 2025 Agenda as presented in advance. By voice vote, motion carried.

MINUTES: Motion was made by V. Scott, seconded by Elliott to approve the March 21, 2025 minutes as presented in advance. By voice vote, motion carried.

FINANCE:

a.) Treasurer’s Investment Report – March 2025:

Treas. Ferguson’s mentioned the $100,000 CD earing .07% interest will mature on April 28, 2025. It should not be hard to find a better rate. She has been in touch with Shaan Smith, the new broker on our account, and will contact him when the CD matures. The JPMorgan Chase CD for $50,000 earning 4.75% is being called at par which will give us an opportunity to add some of the trust fund cash and bring it up to $75,000 to reinvest. The stock market has been up and down in the last month. The cemetery’s portfolio has an emphasis of income producing, dividend paying securities and those value type securities tend to hold up better during a volatile environment. Motion was made by G. Scott, seconded by V. Scott to approve the February Treasurer’s Report. By voice vote, motion carried. b.) Cash Receipts Report – March 2025:

Chair Brown gave a brief overview of the March Cash Receipts Report noting that the operating fund opening cash balance for March is $156,790.12, had revenue of $38,860.98, expenses of $29,470.21 leaving an ending balance of $166,180.89.

c.) Cash Receipts Report and Claims Approval – March 2025:

Motion was made by G. Scott, seconded by Elliott, to approve Financial Statements for the month ending March 31, 2025, to approve the Cash Receipts Reports, and to pay claims when funds are available. By voice vote, motion carried.

SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT: Supt. Moore reported on the following:

✠ Supt. Moore said the mowing has begun and the employees are trying to keep up with the quickly growing grass.

✠ The summer help has started. Tony Garman was transitioned to mowing last year and he is doing that again this year. There are three workers mowing at Diamond Grove and two at East and the five are mowing constantly. Greg Olson is working on the plants and beds and preparing them for the season. Greg and Michael finished planting all the plugs. The baskets are in the flats and everything is growing and looking good. Greg is also working on 75 or 80 ledgers, which are covers that go over the grave space. This is very labor intensive because you cannot get a machine between those so they have to be manually cleaned. This year they are starting a process of salt with a liner and put down new mulch. It is more work now but we are hopeful it will be less work later in the season.

✠ The phone at Diamond Grove has issues when it rains a lot. Supt. Moore has spoken with Rex Ginder regarding the problem and Frontier has admitted there is a problem with land line system in that area so he is working on a solution. Ideally, it would be wonderful to move to an I3 Broadband system and bring the internet and phone in at the same time.

✠ East Cemetery has a property to the south that has trash issues. When the wind blows, all the trash comes into the cemetery. Supt. Moore has spoken with Comm. Dev. Dir. Nyberg about the situation and he is working with the home owner to clean up the property.

✠ Chad Boehlke was wanting to put markers to recognize those connected with the Underground Railroad predominately at East Cemetery. Many of these individuals do not have markers and several of these have served in the military. He has been filling out the forms and working with the Veterans Affairs (VA) to get markers placed for those individuals.

✠ The new equipment is doing great. One piece of equipment had a broken throttle but it has been repaired.

PUBLIC COMMENT: No discussion.

OLD BUSINESS:

Selvaggio Steel has the panels for the East Cemetery fence. The employees need to do the concrete forms for the panels but with the mowing, the timing is not good right now. Next week Supt. Moore will pull the employees from mowing to pour the concrete forms so everything will be finished before Memorial Day.

Supt. Moore has been in regular contact with Mr. Birdsell regarding the fence at Diamond Grove and has also reached out to another fabricator as a backup.

NEW BUSINESS: No discussion.

ADJOURNMENT: Hearing no further business, a motion was made by V. Scott, seconded by Elliott, to adjourn the meeting at 9:15 a.m. By voice vote, motion carried.

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