The town will continue to lease the site of its future cemetery to an agricultural business.
At its June 9 regular meeting, town council was told staff had intended to cease a 10-year leasing agreement with P & H Ranching Co. Ltd., a company that had used the 20-acre parcel of land for cattle to graze on.
“It was more of a bull storage area than a feeding area,” noted Craig Teal, director of planning and operational services.
He said the long-standing agreement for the site, located at the far north of town along the west side of the C & E Trail, was originally slated for termination last year as the town was planning on removing clay fill as part of its construction of the new Napoleon Meadows subdivision.
“As it turned out when we did tenders for Napoleon Meadows the successful contractor came up with a more cost-effective way of providing clay fill so we ended up with not going ahead with the changes at the future cemetery site,” said Teal. “Knowing that, P & H Ranching came back and said can we go back to leasing the property for pasture on a year-to-year basis.”
The new agreement with P & H stipulates the lease can be terminated with three months' written notice, the lease fee is based on $65 per acre ($1,300 for 20 acres), the town continues to have access to the land if required, P & H is responsible for weed control and fencing upkeep, and the property be used for pasturing of cattle.
Teal said every year after 2014 the town can at its discretion renew the lease for another one-year term.
Meanwhile, he said there is no timeline for the development of the new cemetery property, which was acquired and subdivided by the town about 35 years ago. Teal added there is no overall design yet to allow for prep work at the site, such as a service road and landscaping.
“We still have some years of capacity left at the existing cemetery,” said Teal. “It is not something we necessarily have to do immediately in the next year but in the next five years, and this is my best guess, I wouldn't be surprised if we have to start to do some of that prep on that site.”
