By Keith Purtell
Times Staff Writer
April 29, 2008 06:12 pm
—
A decades-old problem with the east boundary of a Fort Gibson cemetery was only partially resolved Monday night.
The Fort Gibson Board of Trustees voted 4-1 to accept an offer from Dick Sheffield to split the $7,000 cost of replacing and straightening a barbed-wire fence. It separates his ranch land from the east side of Citizens Cemetery.
Although there was discussion of installing a more visually-pleasing chain link fence, the trustees were not able to accept the projected $30,000 price tag.
Town Clerk Debbie Daniels said the Citizens Cemetery always loses money.
“We’re paying about $30,000 a year to run the cemetery,” she said. “It brings in about $7,000 a year.”
Sheffield also volunteered to absorb the full cost of removing trees and brush which are intermingled with the old existing fence line. He has already hired someone who is cutting down old Bodark trees that form a wind break, but will interfere with installation of a replacement fence.
The problem that was indefinitely postponed was the fact that the fence line and east side of the cemetery are on Sheffield’s property.
The mistake had gone unnoticed for decades. Sheffield said his family bought the land in the mid-1940s.
Although Sheffield offered to sell the 1.1 acres to the city at below market value for a little more than $8,000, trustees declined. They voted against the proposed purchase.
Mayor Steve Hill said the entire situation might set a precedent with other land owners who had fences alongside city property.
Hill added that it appeared the correction in the fence row location was an issue that was postponed yet again, possibly for the next generation of city leaders.
Reach Keith Purtell at 684-2925.
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