Roodhouse agrees to donate to Fernwood Cemetery

By Editor | July 16, 2025 |

By Carmen Ensiner

Trustees of Fernwood Cemetery, located at the edge of Roodhouse across from the fire station, asked the council at their July 9 meeting to make a donation towards the upkeep of the cemetery.
Fernwood Cemetery Trustees James Price, Steve Shive and Sally Hardwick were all at the meeting with Price doing most of the talking for the group.
“You have helped us in the past with cleaning snow, tree trimming or mowing ditches and we really appreciate it,” Price said. “But we are here tonight to ask for a donation to help maintain the cemetery.”
Price said they have a perpetual fund that sometimes takes care of the yearly maintenance.
“However, looking to the future, as things keep going up, we are looking at trying to add some funds,” Price said. “Our perpetual fund takes care of 85 to 90 percent of cemetery maintenance, and sometimes the whole thing. But, this year, there is a lot of mowing. We think maybe we can wait 10 days or even skip a week, but with the rain that hasn’t been possible.”
They have another form of revenue, the selling of grave lots and the opening of graves, but those forms of income are very unpredictable.
“Last year, I sold 12 to 14 grave spaces,” Price said. “This year, so far, I have sold 1 so you never know. Things can change very easily but we are just looking ahead to needing some other sources of income.”
Price said this isn’t something that has just come up.
“We (Trustees) have talked about this over the last few years,” he said. “At our last meeting, after taking a close look at our finances, we may need some extra funds this season. Whatever you can do to help would be great. Maybe consider something annually even. Whatever you can do to help would be greatly appreciated.”
Alderman Gage Giberson brought up for discussion the basketball backboards at Ridder Bell Park. Apparently, unruly youth in the community have smashed the backboards numerous times, which has become very costly. As a result, they have been looking into purchasing shatter-proof backboards from Elite Products.
Giberson said Elite Products had been in contact with Roodhouse Police Chief Kyle Robison about the new backboards and have offered a $1,000 discount towards the purchase of two brand new basketball hoops and two aluminum shatterproof backboards.
“At some point we have to draw the line at replacing them two or three times a year at $700 each and we have to move on,” Giberson said. “The biggest thing is that he said if you want to order you had better do it soon because they are slim on what they have left.”
According to Robison, the Youth Fund is able to supply $2,000 towards the purchase of the new backboards and hoops. Also, the parents of the kids who broke the last one are going to bring in the money to replace it. There is also money in the Ridder Bell account.
“We have the funds and can buy two of them now,” Giberson said. “We could put the current ones we have up for bid to offset some of the cost of the new ones.”
Robison said that the problem isn’t with the kids who are playing basketball at the park.
“The problem is with the kids who are just loitering around – not the basketball players themselves,” he said. “The people suffering are the kids who can’t play basketball because of the actions of others.”
The council awarded Wes Bradford the bid for spraying for weeds around town. Bradford had given an original bid of $2,320, but Giberson noticed that the two main streets in town, including down Rt. 67, are not covered in that bid.
“I asked Wes to add Palm St. and State St. to that list and see how much the bid would change,” Giberson said. “His bid went up from $2,320 to $2,750. However, there are going to be times when this price is not going to be 100 percent. What we are talking about is it would be up to $2,750 – it could be less depending on the year.”
The quote is for two applications per growing season.
“He is not going to be spraying two times this year,” Giberson said. “Some years it would be under the $2,750. He is not going to charge for materials he doesn’t use.”
The council approved Bradford’s bid.
Giberson also brought up the subject of internet at the Rez.
“I know it was brought up a while back about getting internet out at the Rez,” he said. “After doing some research, it sounds like a couple of years ago a past council had talked about possibly putting it out there.”
Giberson said he talked to Matt Martin Consulting about the cost to put it out there.
“He told me he thought he still had the quote he had given the other council,” Giberson said. “I met him out at the west side where there is already a satellite put up. He said he would have to put one on the east end in the middle of the campers and beam it across the lake.”
Giberson said that Martin suggested that all the campers would pay the same amount for the service, whether they used it or not. Martin said $2,000 would take care of everything he would have to do to get it up and running.
“He didn’t include how much it would cost each month,” Giberson said. “Basically, we are going to pay for the service and get to decide what it is going to cost each camper. I think it will be a cheap and efficient way of getting it out there.”
One alderman pointed out that most people just use a hotspot with their phone. Others, who didn’t want the internet would not want to pay for something they didn’t use.