Mount Albion Cemetery expansion finalized, 35 acres for $250,000

Money will come from cemetery funds, but not from perpetual care

File photo by Tom Rivers: Mount Albion started the Deerfield section in 2001 with space for about 1,200 grave sites. It was the last expansion at the cemetery. There are only about 300 to 400 spots left at Deerfield.

ALBION – The sale has been finalized for the Village of Albion to acquire 35.2 acres of vacant land for future expansion of Mount Albion Cemetery.

The village is paying $250,874.58 to Patricia Nelson for the land that is next to Mount Albion’s southwest corner.

The sale was finalized on Nov. 8 and the Albion Village Board on Dec. 11 stipulated the payment comes from the cemetery, but not the perpetual care fund.

The village clerk and independent auditors reviewed the cemetery funds and determined the sale price will be paid from perpetual care funds, and instead will come from “accumulation of monies over time from donations for purchase of flowers for established grave sites or from the sale of burial sites at the cemetery,” according to a Dec. 11 board resolution.

Albion could run out of grave sites at the existing cemetery in the next five to 10 years, board members said.

Mount Albion opened in 1843 and has about 20,000 gravesites on about 80 acres. The cemetery does about 75 burials a year and sells about 50 to 60 gravesites annually, cemetery superintendent Jason Zicari said in a May interview.

The village acquired the land at $7,000 per acre plus the cost of the abstract of title and a survey.

Zicari expects the 35.2 acres will be developed in phases, and may not be needed for a decade.