City parks, city streets ... city cemetery?

Dozens of graves dating to the 1800s are now lined up next to soccer fields in a Minnetonka park.

Tucked under a grove of tall cedar trees, they are the final resting place of some of the area's early Czech settlers. Today, suburban development surrounds the site, and cemetery board members who once tended the graves are gone.

Now, care of the little cemetery has fallen to the city.

Shady Oak Lake Cemetery is just one of thousands of small cemeteries in Minnesota, and one of many private cemeteries that are winding up in public hands when there is no one left to watch over them.

The duty might seem an unlikely one for a city.

But Minnetonka, Eden Prairie and Apple Valley are examples of cities that have adopted cemeteries at the urging of private associations that could not maintain them anymore.

In Minnetonka, the old cemetery has become a park. In Apple Valley, residents voted to build a historic burial ground into a larger city cemetery.

Neglected graveyards

Most of the cemeteries in Minnesota are small operations run by volunteer boards, said Ron Gjerde, secretary-treasurer of the Minnesota Association of Cemeteries. When board members die, there often is no one else to step in.

"As these cemeteries fill up and are no longer active, and if endowment funds aren't enough to take care of the property, they've got some problems," Gjerde said.

An example of what can happen when no one is willing to take over a cemetery can be found in the former Rosedale Cemetery in Roseville in the 1990s. Most of the board that oversaw the five-acre burial site quit. Disgusted relatives of people buried there began bringing lawnmowers on weekends to trim the plots.

The years of neglect finally ended when Roseville and Ramsey County officials agreed to establish a permanent fund for cemetery maintenance, contributing $30,000 each. The eventual buyer of the cemetery, the Minnesota Islamic Cemetery Association, contributed $12,000. A Roseville official says there have been no problems since.

Minnetonka acquired the Shady Oak Lake Cemetery on Shady Oak Road in 2003 and closed plot sales in 2005. The graves are maintained as part of Lone Lake Park. "It's a very natural setting," said Dave Johnson, director of recreation services for Minnetonka.

Minnetonka declined, however, to adopt the Groveland Cemetery on Minnetonka Boulevard because the association was looking for long-term care and there wasn't a clear community benefit, Johnson said.

The decision with Shady Oak was easier because the 1.5-acre graveyard came with an unused 1.5 acres that could be turned into parkland, as well as a perpetual-care fund valued at $99,000 and a set of historical records, some written in Czech, documenting some of the city's founding families.

With maintenance costs at about $5,000 a year, Johnson expects the care fund to last about 20 years.

Costs main concern for cities

In 1997, Apple Valley residents approved a $795,000 bond issue to buy eight more acres of land for the cemetery, and the city now operates it through its public works department -- and is bringing it into the 21st century.

To accommodate the growing demand for places to put cremated remains -- the portion of Minnesotans who choose cremation has increased from 11.4 percent in 1986 to 40.4 percent in 2006 -- Lebanon now has a monument for ashes and plans to add another one this year. It also offers boulders with drilled cores to hold cremated remains.

Long-range plans call for 16 monuments for ashes and a mausoleum, said cemetery coordinator Jean Bryant.

"Apple Valley has taken a chance on this, and it's coming to be a crown jewel," Kohls said.

Eden Prairie took over the two-acre Pleasant Hill Cemetery on Pioneer Trail in 1987. The site, established in 1854, was a gift to the city and came with a perpetual care fund that allows it to operate without tax dollars, said Stuart Fox, city parks manager. The parks department now sells plots.

Cities adopting cemeteries is not new. Bloomington's city cemetery was established by Oak Grove Presbyterian Church in 1856. When the church, which still exists, moved in 1864, the city took over the cemetery. It has expanded to offer new grave plots.

Only people who are Bloomington residents when they die or who once lived in the city for at least 10 years, as well as members of their immediate family, can be buried there.