Colfax approves additional $3,000 for cemetery survey
By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The Colfax Village Board has approved paying $3,000 for a Certified Survey Map (CSM) of Evergreen Cemetery.
The CSM will include the addition to Evergreen Cemetery and the remainder of the school district’s property after the new boundary has been established.
Chris Olson, village trustee, told the other Colfax Village Board members at the December 10 meeting that he had spoken with Bill Yingst, superintendent of the Colfax School District, and that Yingst had spoken to the Board of Education.
The Colfax School District is asking that the village pay for surveying that portion of the school’s property that is beyond the cemetery addition, Olson said.
The initial cost estimate for a Certified Survey Map (CSM) for the new addition to Evergreen Cemetery was $1,400.
Yingst asked that two rows of trees be retained around the cemetery, Olson said.
Peoples State Bank deeded 28 acres to the Colfax School District in 1943 to be used for a school forest.
According to the warranty deed, the land was to be used by the school district for “reforestation purposes” and when the school district was no longer using the land for trees, the land could only be used for the cemetery.
According to Ron Jasperson, a registered land surveyor with Cedar Corporation, the existing Evergreen Cemetery and the new addition to the cemetery will cover between 11 and 12 acres total.
“I don’t think the school (district) can use the land for anything else anyway,” said Gary Stene, village president, at the December 10 meeting.
Once the school district removes the trees, the land can be planted back into trees again or the school district must give the land to the village, Olson noted.
If the village pays for the CSM, the village will have a copy of it, which will perhaps make land transfers easier in the future, he said.
After the school district removed the trees, village board members thought the transfer of land would occur automatically, but officials from both the school district and the village never followed up on the issue, and the land was never officially transferred.
In June, the Colfax Village Board accepted a bid of $8,000 from Cedar Corporation to complete the survey of Evergreen Cemetery.
The $3,000 for the CSM will be in addition to the $8,000 cost for the survey.
The Colfax Village Board unanimously approved paying up to $3,000 for the Certified Survey Map of the new addition to Evergreen Cemetery and the remainder of the school district’s property.