Completion of bathrooms plus a storage area at the Hennessey Cemetery pavilion were among the 1-5-year capital improvement projects discussed by the Hennessey Board of Trustees during a fivehour planning meeting last month.

Mayor Bert Gritz, who owns the Cordry-Gritz Funeral Home, presented the cemetery capital improvement plans at the Feb. 5 meeting.

1-5 Year Projects

• Pavilion – Complete bathroom and storage area and purchase groundskeeping equipment to be kept there (52-inch Scag mulching power and Stihl weed eater).

The cemetery pavilion was gifted to the town by an anonymous donor.

Kevin Fuksa, a then-local builder, said the donor set a $75,000 construction limit during the town board’s Aug. 24, 2017, meeting. The town was responsible for supplying water and sewer lines to the facility.

The pavilion was completed in 2018 and was first used late that October.

There is space on the west side of the pavilion for the bathrooms and a garage to house mowing equipment and “we need to finish it,” Gritz told the KT&FP.

Heated tiles will be needed in the bathrooms to keep it from freezing, he told the board during the 2017 meeting.

• Prep new addition to the north (sprigging, plant trees, concrete headstones, roads and fencing).

Gritz told the KT&FP after the meeting there are more than 5,000 buried on the “current 12 acres.” Scott Hajek gave the town an adjoining five acres at the north end of the cemetery about a year ago, so now there are 17 acres.

During the planning meeting, Gritz said cemeteries now use rows of concrete. That way there are secure footings for headstones because there are problems with headstones falling over, he said.

In addition to securing the headstones, he said it saves on mowing costs.

Gritz also said there are more and more cremations and Trustee Richard Simunek suggested they might look into creating a columbarium.

Gritz said the gravel roads in the cemetery cause “women in their good shoes” problems and he’d like to pave the roads at some point because the mud from rain can be a big problem.

He said rain and snow are also problems and he’d like to be able to asphalt the roads at some point.

5-10 Year Projects

• Signage for sections, roads and rows to facilitate grave locating for families.

• Re-gravel roads.

• Replace trees, as needed.

• Update parking area by removing cables and putting in concrete stops.

10-15 Year Projects

• Put chain link fence on west side (“so cattle don’t get in there”) for a more uniform appearance.

• Replace trees, as needed.

• Re-gravel, or overlay parking areas.