Evergreen Cemetery Kalkaska Township
W Kalkaska Rd NW, Kalkaska, MI 49646
P.O. Box 855, Kalkaska, MI 49646
Hours: 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM, Mon thru Wed
Closed on Thursday & Friday
Drop box located at the west side entrance
Phone: 231-258-9305
Fax: 231-258-3292
Evergreen Cemetery in Kalkaska Township
Sexton: Mike Bourne
Hours are Monday – Friday 8:00AM to 4:30PM
Graves are $450.00 per space – this includes perpetual care
Grave opening and closing $450.00
Cremain Burial is $150.00 (Must be done by Sexton)
Babyland Grave is $100.00. Opening and Closing is $50.00
For questions regarding Evergreen Cemetery, please contact the Kalkaska Township office at 231-258-9305.
Rules and Regulations
The Township Board Kalkaska, Michigan 2021
The township of Kalkaska, State of Michigan through its Township Board administers the affairs of Evergreen Cemetery. It reserves the right to refuse admission to the Cemetery and to refuse the use of any of the Cemetery facilities at any time to any person or person whom the Board may deem objectionable to the best interest of the Cemetery. It is the Boards’ purpose to provide the public with a modern cemetery, burial space at a reasonable cost and perpetual care and maintenance of the entire cemetery.
General Rules:
1. Persons visiting the Cemetery or attending funerals are strictly prohibited from picking flowers, wild or cultivated, breaking or injuring any tree, shrub, or plan, or from writing upon, defacing, or injuring any memorials, fence, or other structure within the Cemetery.
2. Motor cars and vehicles must be kept under complete control at all times
3. The following things are prohibited:
a. The driving of motor cars or other vehicles through the gates or in the Cemetery at excessive speeds. The Speed limit is established at 15 MPH.
b. Driving any motor car, vehicle, or animal across or upon any grave, lot, or lawn or parking or leaving the same thereon.
c. Parking or leaving any motor car or vehicle on any road or driveway within the cemetery at such location or in such position as to prevent any other car or vehicle from passing the same, and if so parked or left, the management will remove at owner’s expense.
4. No bicycles, motorcycles, or snowmobiles will be admitted to the cemetery except such as may be in attendance at funerals or on business.
5. Children under fifteen years of age are not permitted within the cemetery, or in its building, unless accompanied by proper persons to care for them.
6. Throwing rubbish on the drives and paths, or on any part of the grounds, or in the buildings is prohibited.
7. It is the utmost importance that there should be strict observance of the properties in the Cemetery. Hence, all persons within the cemetery should avoid contact unbecoming to a sacred place.
a. Loud or boisterous talking.
b. Idling or loafing on the grounds.
c. Bringing lunches or refreshments into the cemetery or consuming them on the grounds.
d. Peddling or soliciting the sale of any commodity within the cemetery.
e. Placing of signs, notices, or advertising within the cemetery.
f. Bringing dogs into the cemetery or buildings.
g. Bringing firearms into the Cemetery except by a military escort accompanying a Veterans funeral or attending a memorial service.
8. The Cemetery, although under Township jurisdiction, will not be considered public land in the sense that is common property and subject to the whims of the public, but is to be considered as holy ground, dedicated to the peace and repose of the departed and subject to the consideration and respect of all who visit or own burial rights in the cemetery.
9. Special cases may arise in which the literal enforcement of a rule may impose unnecessary hardship. The Township Board, therefore, reserves the right to make exceptions, suspensions, or modifications of any of these Rules and Regulations, without notice, when the judgement of the Board such action appears necessary; and such temporary exception, suspension or modification shall in no way be construed as affecting the general application of such Rules and Regulations.
10. The Township Board hereby expressly reserves the right to adopt additional Rules and Regulations or to amend, alter, or repeal any rule, regulation or article section, paragraph, or sentence in these Rules and Regulations, at any time, and without any notice.
11. Adequate records shall be kept in duplicate of all lot descriptions and interments, and owners of record. A diagram shall be available of each lot showing the position of internments.
Lots and Lot Owners:
1. Cemetery sections, lots, subdivisions, walk-ways, and roads are established by plat. This provides proper access for the public, for efficient cemetery operation and grounds maintenance, as well as insuring that proper records may be kept. The grade lines of all lots and subdivisions are established before lots, graves or burial rights are sold and will not be changed. No walkways or roads shown in the original play will be abandoned or sold to a private lot owner. No easement or right of interment is granted to any lot owner in any road, drive, alley or walk withing the cemetery; but such road, alley, drive or walk may be used as a means to access the cemetery or buildings, as long as the Township Board devotes it to that purpose.
2. The right to enlarge, reduce, replat, or change the boundaries or grading of the cemetery, or a section or sections, from time to time, including the right to modify or change the locations of or remove to regrade roads, drives, or walks, or any part thereof is hereby reserved. The right to lay, maintain, and operate, or alter or change pipe lines, or gutters for sprinkling systems, drainage, etc. is also expressly reserved as well as is the right to use cemetery property not sold to individual lot owners for cemetery purposes, including interment of the dead, or for anything necessary, incidental or convenient thereto. The Township Board reserves to itself and to those lawfully entitled thereto, a perpetual right of ingress and egress over plots for the purpose of passing to and from other plots.
3. Persons desiring to purchase burial rights should visit the Cemetery where the Sexton will aid them in making a selection and will use a memorandum describing the lot purchased. The memorandum must then be presented to the Township Clerk, who upon receipt of purchase price, will issue the right to burial.
4. Lot sizes shall be of the dimensions prescribed by the Cemetery plat, and will accommodate a maximum of eight (8) burials. Half or Quarter lots for four (4) or two (2) burials, respectively, may be purchased in designated sections.
5. The Township Board will take all reasonable precautions to protect lot owners, and property owners, and property rights, within the Cemetery from loss or damage; but the Board distinctly disclaims all responsibility for loss or damage from causes beyond its reasonable control, and especially from damage caused by the elements, and act of God, common enemy, thieves, vandals, strikes, malicious mischief makers, explosions, unavoidable accidents, invasions, insurrections, riots, or order of any military or civil authority, whether the damage may be direct or collateral, other than as herein provided.
6. The Township will recognize as a lot or grave owner, only those persons whose names appear on the Cemetery record or legal heirs. Ownership may be transferred upon written permission filed with the Township Clerk. Heirship to Cemetery property follows blood lines unless otherwise provide by will or legal transfer. The Township refuses any responsibility for disagreement arising from or as a result of partnership or divided ownership.
Care and Maintenance of Lots:
1. The general care of the cemetery is assumed by the Township Board and includes the cutting and sprinkling of the grass at reasonable intervals, the raking and cleaning of the grounds and pruning of the shrubs and trees that may be placed by the Township.
2. The general care assumed by the Cemetery shall in no case mean the maintenance, repair, or replacement of any memorial, tomb, or mausoleum placed or erected upon lots; nor the doing of any special or unusual work in the Cemetery, including work caused by the impoverishment of the soil, nor does it meant the reconstruction of any marble or granite work on any section or lot or any portion thereof in the cemetery caused by the elements and act of God, common enemy, thieves, vandals, strikers, malicious mischief makers, explosions, unavoidable accidents, invasion, insurrections, riots or by the order of any military or civil authority, whether the damage be direct or collateral or as herein provided.
3. The Cemetery will undertake to maintain, as may be practicable, the planting of trees and shrubs, to preserve and maintain landscape features, but does not undertake to maintain individual urns.
4. The Sexton shall have authority to remove all artificial floral designs, cultivated flowers, weeds, trees, shrubs, plants, or herbage of any kind from the cemetery as soon as, in the judgment of the Sexton, they become unsightly, dangerous, detrimental, or diseased, or when they do not conform to the standard maintained.
5. Concrete or metal curbing around the perimeter of any lot or burial space is prohibited.
6. Private landscaping or grading of lots may be permitted upon consultation with, and permission of the Sexton, lots shall be kept level with the established elevation of the walkways, drives, or paths of the cemetery. If permission is granted or change of a particular lot, the perimeter must be sloped to the center of the adjacent aisles to facilitate mowing and care. In the interest of safety and efficiency, no sharp drop will be permitted at the edge of lots where the lactation has been changed. Should this occur, the Sexton may repair the condition and charge for this service will be made to the lot owner.
Internments:
1. All graves will be opened and closed by Cemetery employees except where disinterment is being made at the direction of the medical examiner or other medical legal reasons under court jurisdiction.
2. No interment of more than two (2) cremains or one body and one cremains in one grave, expect in the case of a Mother & Child or two infants in one casket. In cases of 2 cremains or 1 body and 1 cremains or baby in the single grave, the base size of the cemetery memorial shall be limited to 30” in width. Markers exceeding 30“ in width will not be accepted, it is recommended the first names be stacked rather than placed side by side in these situations.
3. No lot shall be used for any other purpose than for the burial of human dead.
4. Burial boxes over four (4) feet in length will be classified as adult size.
5. In order to maintain a high standard of care and to eliminate sunken graves caused by the collapse of wooden boxes, all adult burials (over 4 feet in casket length) must be made in outside containers made of natural stone, metal, or reinforced concrete in the regular Cemetery sections. Wooden rough boxes may be used in the Potter’s field section.
6. All interments, disinterments and removals must be made at the time, and in the manner, and upon charges, fixed by the Township Board.
7. Besides being subject to these Rules and Regulations, all interments, disinterments, and removals are made subject to the laws of the State of Michigan.
8. Cremains interred in a burial space shall be in a container made of concrete, marble, ABS plastic or bronze.
Cemetery Memorials:
1. Styles and designs of monuments and markers shall not be related except as hereinafter stated. All materials used in construction of monuments, markers, and permanent lot markers must be recognized durable granite, marble, or standard bronze. All other grades of slate, artificial stone, terra cotta, wood, iron, or glass in any form will not be permitted, and may be removed by the Sexton without notice to the owner. This does not prohibit the use of temporary metal markers which may be used until a permanent memorial is erected. All memorials must be installed in a workmanlike manner. The base of the memorial must not exceed 50% of the lot width, and the face must not exceed 15% of the superficial lot size.
2. Surface or Building type Mausoleums may be erected with the permission of the Township Board provided the owner has sufficient cemetery property. It is erected of a durable granite or marble, and construction is made in a workmanlike manner.
3. Foundation shall be of concrete or similar material, and shall be laid flush with the ground, and shall extend at least four (4) inches beyond the perimeter of the monument or marker. It is highly recommended that the foundations be extended on each end to accommodate an urn for flowers.
4. No more that two (2) markers or monuments may be placed in any one (1) burial space. Markers placed at the head of graves may be above ground. Those places at any other location shall be limited to flush style installed level with the ground so as to not interfere with mowing patterns.
Correction of Errors:
1. The Cemetery reserves, and shall have, the right to correct any errors that may be made by it either in making interments, disinterments, or removals, or in description, transfer or conveyance of any interment property, either by cancelling such conveyance and substituting in lieu thereof other interment property of equal value and similar location as fast as possible, or as may be selected by the Township Board, or in the sole discretion of the Township Board, by refunding the amount of money paid on account of said purchase. In the event such error shall involve the interment of the remains of any person in such property, the Cemetery reserves, and shall have the right to remove or transfer such remains so interred to such the other property of the equal value and similar location as may be substituted and conveyed in lieu thereof.
Appeals:
1. Any party objecting to the decision of the Sexton regarding Cemetery or private landscaping, plantings, removal of floral designs, trees, shrubs, or any other matter in which these rules and regulations grant him discretionary authority, may appeal his decision in writing to the Township board. After ascertaining the facts, the Township Board shall render a decision. Such decision will be considered binding and final.
Schedule of Fees:
1. The Township Board shall adopt a schedule of fees covering lot costs, perpetual care, storage fees, grave opening and closing costs, etc. This schedule will be periodically reviewed and updated in keeping with the needs of the Cemetery. The schedule of fees will be posted in the office of the Cemetery, and will be available to all interested parties.