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Home My WebLink About06-10-2025 Agenda Cemetery Board CI' Y OF Regular Meeting AUBURN June 10, 2025 - 2:00 PM Cemetery Office, Arrangement Room WAS H I N GTO N MINUTES CALL TO ORDER • The Cemetery Board meeting of Tuesday. June 10th, 2025 was called to order by Judi Roland at 2:02pm. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION There was no public participation. ROLL CALL • Members present: Judi Roland, Jeanne Hicks and Robert Rakos. Bridget Jones arrived at 2:07pm. • Member excused: Tim Pierce • Staff present: Immer Chevalier and April Shank Cerio AGENDA MODIFICATIONS • Pioneer Fence Parking was added to the agenda under New Business AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION There was no audience participation. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. Review of Minutes - Minutes from Meeting on April 8th, 2025 • Minutes from meeting on April 8th, 2025 were reviewed, no corrections or additions were made and a motion was made and unanimously passed to approve as printed. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Water Leak • A leak detected last year in the new Forest Walk III water feature found a break in the liner seam. That was fixed. Lakehaven gave an adjustment to the Cemetery's water bill for the repair. However, during the Cemetery's annual backflow testing in March, a new leak was noticed by a spinning meter. Water was then turned off. American Leak Detection company was hired to help find the leak and, after a couple of visits, a large break in 9A was detected. The fix was made by cemetery staff. The Cemetery will apply for another adjustment on the billing. There is still a minor leak somewhere as the meter is fluctuating between 0-1 gallon per minute. The company said this kind of leak would be next to impossible to try and locate. B. Camera Installation Completion • Last year, the Cemetery decided cameras were needed for security. Facilities contracted a company and the camera installation was completed recently. They were installed in the back of the cemetery office to view the shop and fuel tanks and also inside the Chapel of Memories Columbarium. The City IT Department hooked them up to the City's network so they can also be viewed by other City Departments if needed. One week of surveillance is recorded at a time for viewing. C. Temporary Maintenance Workers • The cemetery hired two Seasonal employees, and they started on April 24th. This timing was perfect as one of the full-time employees was out a few weeks sick. They have been a huge help and are very responsible, reliable and are hard workers. We enjoy having them at the cemetery. • Question from the board - What timeframe are the temporary workers hired for? One was hired as a seasonal employee and the other as a temporary employee. Temporary can be here for 1500 hours total and seasonal for 5.5 months. Normally the timeline is at least spring-fall. NEW BUSINESS A. Easter Sunrise & Clean Sweep Events • Easter Sunrise service was beautiful, well attended and the weather cooperated. Board member Jones officiated and appreciated the set-up and there were around 100 people in attendance. The coffee and donuts supplied by the cemetery were appreciated by attendees. • Clean Sweep this year focused on weeding in ForestWalk. The Parks Department assigned two groups to the Cemetery. The Sons of Italy had a fun time helping with the weeding from 9-12 noon and didn't want to stop. Cemetery Manager Immer Chevalier along with Maintenance workers David Partridge and Richard Nakama were also in attendance, helping with the project. B. Understaffing • Full-time maintenance worker Dylan Spader decided he wanted a career change and gave his resignation at the beginning of April. At the same time, another employee that has issues with gout had a bad flare-up and was out for 3.5 weeks. Upon returning, he did have to provide HR with a letter stating he was fit to come back. Down two full-time employees, the staff were getting tired but still managed to handle all the services and get everything done that was needed. • Question from the board - With the understaffing, is this just people working outside or inside the office as well? Just outside. Inside, the office is staffed and is good with Immer and April. • Question from the board - How many employees does the Parks Department have? Probably 20 full-time and maybe 30 part-time during the summers due to activities. They are understaffed currently. C. New Maintenance Worker I - Tyler Decoteau • Tyler worked for the City as a Temporary employee last year at the cemetery. He showed he was a hard worker, reliable, was responsible and got along with the crew. During this time, we didn't have a full-time position available. He had applied for the Water & Parks department but didn't get hired. His time as a Seasonal expired and he left. Then a position opened up and he was interested. He applied, was interviewed and secured the position. The cemetery is happy to have him back. D. Memorial Day • In preparation for the Memorial Day weekend, all markers were trimmed, mowing was done twice, the Vegetation Department brought the street sweeper through, and the Parks Department delivered the bleachers. That Saturday, scouts placed all the flags on veterans' graves and, in appreciation, the cemetery staff BBQ'd for them and had a raffle for three prizes. The rain stopped just in time for the ceremony on Monday. City Council and Mayor were present along with the Fire Department Honor Guard and Scouts. All went smoothly. Throughout the weekend, hundreds of visitors came to the cemetery. E. 10th Addition Project - Invitation to Submit Quote • The City finished the proposal to invite contractors to submit a quote for the 10th Addition project. This will stay open for 15 days. When it closes, the lowest bid will be selected. Hopefully the project will get started in June. • Question by the board - What is all in the project? Removing rocks, re-grading, irrigation, turf and landscaping along the fence area in the back by the large boulders. The whole area is around 30,000 square feet. F. START Award from Labor& Industries • START = Safety Through Achieving Recognition Together. In 2024, a consultation was started with the Department of Labor & Industries. HR wanted to make sure everything was in compliance with safety trainings. The cemetery had a few questions, so the timing was good. It was agreed that the cemetery would be a good candidate for the START program with L & I. All cemetery buildings were inspected. The cemetery worked on all SDS records, making sure they were up-to-date online and in print form. L & I visited a 2nd time to assess and all passed. L & I presented the cemetery with the START award with HR, Mayor & the Parks Director in attendance. The Cemetery/City of Auburn is the first employer in King County to achieve this recognition. • From the board - The board would like an invitation to any future award ceremonies for the cemetery. G. Burglary Incident • Just before the busy Memorial Day weekend, a vehicle broke in through the Cemetery upper gate and rammed one of the garage doors twice to gain access. This was a stolen vehicle. The occupant stole numerous tools and completely damaged one of the roll-up doors. The Police Department responded in six minutes which was just after the vehicle left. The next morning, the vehicle was found and several of the tools stolen were in the vehicle. The city will work with Insurance for the garage door fix and the replacement of the remaining tools. H. Pioneer Fence Parking • The gravel parking area at Pioneer Cemetery needs some attention. A suggestion by the board was to move the cement barriers out a couple of feet. The trucks hauling boats are parking there, and it appears when they back up, they hit the fence. This style of fence is expensive to fix and takes time as a portion was just replaced and took well over a year. This is critical, or the fence will be damaged again. • Question from the board - Who has the liability for the property/parking area? There was a recent meeting with the Parks Director regarding maintaining the parking lot and who actually owns it as it is labeled right of way. These details are being looked into as to who is responsible for maintaining the area. ANNOUNCEMENTS, REPORTS, AND PRESENTATIONS A. Budget Update - April - May 2025 • Cemetery sales in April surpassed any previous month recorded, going back numerous years. Property sales were up, marker sales were good and placements were average. May was also a very good revenue month with similar sales and placements. Cemetery Sales April May Month-To-Date Receipts $284,336.39 $232,502.96 (Ground Plots 24 201 (Cremation Plots 8 3I Niches 3 8I IForestWalk Ossuary 1 Extended Land Use 2 1 (Markers 15 151 Graves 32 23 Markers 15 15 Niches 4 8 'Total Placements 22 18 Cremation 9 6 Ground Burial 13 12 SCHEDULE FOR UPCOMING MEETINGS A. Next Meeting - Tuesday, August 12th, 2025 at 2pm • At this next meeting there will be OPMA (Open Public Meetings Act) and PRA (Public Records Act) training for board members. ADJOURNMENT • The meeting was adjourned by Judi Roland at 2:57pm. Prepared By 3) April Shank Cerio, Cemetery Administrative Specialist Approved By at kle. ,6,,-at., .....- Ju ,' oland, Cemetery Board Chairperson