The City of Temple is thinking about just taking over a local historic cemetery.

KWTX is reporting that the city of Temple might take over Hillcrest Cemetery. The city has been helping with the funding of the cemetery since 2011, but the price keeps going up.

I came in 2002 and was impressed with cemetery. The grass was mowed, the stones were in good shape.

In recent years there was some vandalism and other issues with fencing, and the last time I visited it looked like a completely different place. It was sad.

The cemetery has been owned and operated by a not-for-profit cemetery association, Temple Cemetery Company, since 1884.

The city started off by contributing $20,000 a year, but that has grown to $50,000, and now they say that is not enough. They've ask the city to consider upping the contribution to $100,000, or to take over the whole thing including ownership and maintenance.

Temple Mayor, Timothy Davis said, "There are a lot of important figures for the city of Temple like from the Scott &White hospital that are buried there. The heritage of Hillcrest cemetery means a lot for the city of Temple and it would be a shame for it to fall into disrepair."

That's very true. You can always get a sense of the a city by the way they take care of their history.

 

 

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