By Jim Bloch
St. Clair city officials are asking residents to support the decorative urn project at Hillside Cemetery.
The goal is to beautify the cemetery and offer a way to recognize the interred with flowers that are not placed directly on grave sites. The Cemetery Board of Trustees would like to purchase a total of 26 urns in three sizes and place them throughout the cemetery.
“To date, six urns have been purchased, installed and planted with seasonal flowers,” said City Clerk Annette Sturdy and city council member Erin Gottler, on behalf of the board, in their July 3 report to Mayor Bill Cedar and the council. “Initially, the Cemetery Fund Perpetual Care funded the purchase of one large urn that was placed in Section 3 and two medium urns with pedestals that were placed on each side of the entrance on Palmer… Additional private donations allowed for the purchase and delivery of three small urns that were placed by the columbarium units.”
The columbarium units are designed to hold cremated remains.
The urns are not cheap.
A large urn is $1,800; a medium urn is $1,400; a small urn is $600.
“Funding for the remaining 20 urns will rely on private donations,” said Sturdy and Gottler. “Donors may sponsor an urn, a portion of the cost (of one urn), or send a general donation towards the entire project.”
Details and donation forms are available on the city’s website at http://www.cityofstclair.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Flyer.Hillside-Beautification-program.pdf.
The goal is to have one large urn in each section of the cemetery.
The cemetery has “seven sections plus what we refer to as the ‘old section’,” said Sturdy. “One large urn will be placed in the center, or as close to the center, of each of the seven sections but four large urns will be placed equidistant in the ‘old section’.”
Two medium urns on pedestals will mark each entrance to the graveyard from Palmer Street and St. Clair Highway, and small urns will be placed near the columbarium and chapel.
“All donors will be recognized with a personal thank you letter and, depending how the donations come in, either a wall plaque of all donors and/or plaques on individual urns for full urn purchases,” said Sturdy.
Questions may be directed to members of the Cemetery Board of Trustees personally or to City Clerk Sturdy at info@cityofstclair.com or 810-329-7121.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
