Citizens interested in the future of Odd Fellows Cemeteries will have an opportunity to express their views at a public forum Thursday.
The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of North Greenwood Baptist Church.
An 11-member committee has been discussing plans for the cemeteries for several months. It includes one person each from nine Greenwood churches; Charles Peel Jr. of Wilson & Knight Funeral Home, who represents the funeral homes; and Pam Robbins, who represents the community.
The nine churches are First United Methodist, St. John’s United Methodist, North Greenwood Baptist, First Baptist, Immanuel Baptist, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Episcopal Church of the Nativity, First Presbyterian and Westminster Presbyterian.
Randy Clark, who represents First Presbyterian, said the movement grew out of a concern for the future of the cemeteries. The membership of the Odd Fellows Lodge is dwindling, and its members are aging, he said.
“We were just fearful that all of a sudden that organization wouldn’t be there anymore, and this thing would just be sitting here with no support and nobody to look after it,” he said.
Odd Fellows Cemetery on Carrollton Avenue covers 30 acres, and the east location on U.S. 82 is 10 acres with 17 acres undeveloped.
Negotiations for the transfer of the cemeteries are continuing, but the committee has made no decision about whether to take the cemeteries on.
The amount of response at Thursday’s meeting will be key, Peel said. If there’s a large turnout, and people participate and offer ideas, that might indicate that it’s a good idea to move forward, he said.
But the committee members don’t have experience running cemeteries, and they’re not looking to get into that business over the long term, Clark said. The plan is for some other entity to handle the management and finances, he said.
“We’re looking to do what’s necessary to get some organization established, get some bylaws in place with a governing body and get this thing running on its own,” he said, “so that we can know that our grass will be cut 50 years from now and that somebody will be looking after us and know how to find where we’re buried.”
The acquisition itself wouldn’t cost anything, but committee members say they still would have to raise money. Just cutting grass and doing routine maintenance is expected to cost more than $60,000 a year, and there will be other expenses, too, said Dave Becker, who represents Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church on the committee.
The committee wants to beautify the sites to make them more inviting so they can generate more income. Clark said they also would like some volunteer help computerizing the cemetery records.
The churches already have expressed an interest in helping the management move forward, he said.
“Someone’s going to have to step in so that families in my church and our various churches are going to have someone to turn to in the years to come,” said the Rev. Dr. Jim Phillips, pastor of North Greenwood Baptist, who also serves on the committee.
The new ownership would have to be a nonprofit community organization and follow some requirements from the Secretary of State’s Office that don’t apply to fraternal organizations.
Peel said that the people who have run the Odd Fellows locations over the years have been good stewards and, for most of the cemeteries’ history, have been able to manage them profitably. More recently, he said, the cemeteries have been operated at a loss.
Funds set aside years ago for maintenance have helped keep them going.
The lodge has shown a willingness to share some of those deposits, Peel said.
“I’m just hoping that, in this meeting we have, we’ll get some interest and some people to throw some ideas out,” he said.
