The meeting was called to order by President Greg Taylor at 4:13PM.  Also in attendance were Trustees Lisa Hammond, Bill Morris and Lynda Edmonds, Office Manager Rosa Stehly, Grounds Manager James Brink and several community members.  Board member Aileen Wokal was out of town

PUBLIC COMMENT – There were several speakers with concerns regarding care of graves, removal of flowers and other items.  Several commented that  natural flowers are expensive and prefer artificial due to cost and the fresh or natural flowers dry up particularly in the summertime.  There was concern regarding timing of lawn mowing and some felt their recent fresh flowers had been discarded while dead flowers were left on other graves.  The majority stated they tried to follow the rules and asked the staff and board to be consistent.  There was also a question of allowing solar lights.  With so many in attendance the Board broke protocol and attempted to address these concerns.  Those in attendance were told they could find the Agenda & meeting minutes at Bardsdalecemetery.com and then proceeded to explain that they had been lax about people following the rules, decorations etc. had gotten out of hand and they needed to reinforce the rules.  All this has created a problem with lawn mowing due to so many decorations.   Someone stated they didn’t think we had mowed the lawn in a month and they were reassured it was mowed every week and sometimes twice a week but due to so many decorations it was hard to get around some graves. Also presently with only 2 full time employees on the grounds and so many services recently it has been difficult to keep up.  Out of respect when a service is going on there is no mowing or weedeating done.  It was stated all flowers & items picked up on Wednesday morning but again if there is a service Wednesday morning it could be delayed.  There was also concern of flower cans being taken.  The board said this has been an ongoing problem and there is no way to control it, we all have family in the cemetery and have gone through the same thing.   The general consensus was there needs to be more communication.  It was decided any changes to the regular Wednesday schedule would be posted in the window of the cemetery office and all those present were encouraged to check for any postings on their way into the cemetery.  All present were told they could email any of us or call Rosa in the office and she would relay any messages or concerns to the Board.

Due to time constraints at 5:27PM  Lisa moved we adjourn until next Monday, July 28th to complete the agenda.  The motion was seconded by Bill and all were in favor.  Meeting adjourned.

Lynda Edmonds, Secretary