New volunteers breathe life to historic Yachats cemetery, now seek donations, plot sales for more improvements

 

 

By CHERYL ROMANO/YachatsNews

YACHATS — Just a year ago the Yachats cemetery was like a patient in intensive care.

Not yet on life support, it nevertheless needed a big infusion of help to stay functioning. Although its vital signs are much improved, now it needs a chunk of cash to keep regaining health.

The historic cemetery’s recovery is due in large part to the efforts of Yachats resident Dick Brack. As detailed last fall in an article in YachatsNews, he was working single-handedly to manage the 14-acre cemetery, which slopes east of U.S. Highway 101 along King Street.

The previous sexton of Yachats Memorial Park died before she could coach Brack in the myriad tasks required to run the operation, which is private property. It’s owned by the nonprofit Yachats Memorial Park — not, as many assume, by the city, county or state.

Brack, whose wife, Dorene, was buried there in 2021, was left as a one-man board of directors and a year ago issued a public call for help. “I got about 16 emails and 20 calls” from people wanting to volunteer, donate or both, he told YachatsNews recently.

As a result, the park now has a five-member board of directors, a handful of volunteers, an updated grid of who’s buried where, new bylaws, liability insurance and even a logo picturing the green “comfort shelter” with the legend “Historical. Pioneer. Since 1884.”

Volunteers are also busy digitizing handwritten records stored in boxes and binders for secure, easier access.

Another change was installing small black medallions on veterans’ graves, replacing the white, tilting PVC crosses that used to dot the grounds. Those crosses and the practice of placing small American flags year round have been discontinued.

Working closely with the new board president, Ann Stott of Yachats, Brack found that non-religious symbols are favored for cemeteries holding both veterans and non-veterans.

“We studied cemetery protocols and found two things — most veterans’ groups view white crosses as markers for military cemeteries only,” said Stott. “And we learned that small flags on individual lots should be displayed only on Memorial Day and Veterans Day.”

“It’s not cheap … ”

All that work still leaves a need for two major improvements — a new, safer stairway on the north end of the cemetery and a storage shed to replace a rusted shipping container now sinking into the earth.

“It’s not cheap to run a cemetery,” said Stott, a former Yachats city council member. She knows that now.

The cemetery pays $550 each time the grounds are mowed and trimmed – a twice monthly task during the growing season. And each of the 1,052 headstones has to be trimmed and edged at a cost of $20 per hour. Then there’s the cost of trimming trees and brush, paying for liability insurance, maintaining a phone line and buying equipment like a used flatbed trailer, new lawn mower and hedge trimmer.

These operating costs don’t include all the unpaid, volunteer hours spent filling debris containers with brush to clean up and spruce up the grounds. All board members and volunteers are unpaid.

“The cost adds up fast,” said Stott. “We need a more sustainable monthly income to keep progressing.”

Yachats Memorial Park’s only income derives from the sale of burial and cremation plots, which are available to anyone in a five-acre swath that stretches from the highway to a parcel above the shelter. East of that section, timbered land comprises the other nine acres of the property.

Currently, about 520 plots are available for sale. A traditional plot costs $1,000, plus a $50 administrative fee. That’s a bargain, compared to the $2,000 standard charge elsewhere. On the lower cost side, a loved one’s cremated remains can be scattered for $300, which includes a granite memorial brick, placed on a low “Scattering Wall.”

Another option is “green burial” or natural burial — remains can be interred without the traditional embalming and coffins, basically “letting the earth take you back,” Brack explained.

Buy a plot, fund improvements

“If a donation isn’t feasible right now, why not plan ahead and buy a plot?” suggests Stott. “It gives us that money to go into our operating budget.”

Even if advance planners suddenly clamored for plots, the funds likely wouldn’t cover the $18,000 to $23,000 in cost that Yachats Memorial Park is facing for some major improvements.

“This is going to gut our budget,” said Brack. The figures come from bids submitted by two companies to tackle the cemetery’s major to-do-list:

• Re-build the rotting, treacherous north stairway to the upper level, making it broader, safer and more accessible to all;
• Buy and place a new storage shed to replace the existing, rusting and sinking hulk;
• Grade and re-gravel the roads inside the property; and
• Excavate as needed for a new parking area, as well as the new shed and road improvements.

Some sizable help came from the Yachats Lions Club this spring, when it gave the organization $3,500 for the new north stairway. The rebuilt south stairway was finished in 2022 when Brack spent $2,500 of his own money to make it bigger, safer and more accessible for people using canes and wheelchairs.

Even with the Lions’ donation, Yachats Memorial Park needs more — and quickly, if it’s to get some work done before winter. Donations are tax deductible and will be acknowledged with a receipt letter including the organization’s tax identification number. Contributions may be mailed to: Yachats Memorial Park, P.O. Box 140, Yachats, Ore., 97498. More information is available by calling Stott at 541-270-1915, or by emailing yachatsmemorialpark@gmail.com.

History still playing out

Now that he’s no longer a one-man medic for the cemetery, Brack says he’s “very grateful” for the help he’s received. “I love my board of directors,” he said.

It’s worth noting that the cemetery’s history is still playing out with connections to the past. The board’s member-at-large is Barbara Sufficool, the daughter of the prior manager, Barbara Meade of Yachats, who died last year. The groundskeeper is Sufficool’s son, Jason.

Because the first recorded burial of an infant girl was in 1884, Yachats Memorial Park is designated a historic Lincoln County graveyard and an Oregon pioneer cemetery. The cemetery was incorporated in 1938, the year the 14-acre site was donated by The Coast Property Corp.

“Yachats Memorial Park is an integral part of the community that is embedded in our history,” Brack told YachatsNews last year. “I couldn’t sit back and watch (it) turn into a forgotten and neglected site.”

Less than one year later, it looks like the cemetery is well on the way to recovery.

• Cheryl Romano is a Yachats freelance reporter who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. She can be reached at Wordsell@gmail.com