Within the next decade, city residents will no longer be able to rest their loved ones at Oak Grove Cemetery.
Municipal Administrator John Fawcett said there are currently 565 full-sized burial plots left in the cemetery. It will take approximately eight to 10 years to fill those plots.
“That all of course depends on the deaths per year,” Fawcett said.
Oak Grove Sexton, Tim Hammer, said the average number of burials per year is between 50 and 70. If the city experiences years with high death rates, the cemetery may fill up more quickly than anticipated.
Once the cemetery is filled, the city may have to find a new area to use.
Brian Craft, director of Public Works, said the city is still “trying to get the facts and figures” for building a new cemetery but nothing has been decided.
“Right now nothing’s been decided on whether we’re going to continue to develop a second cemetery,” Hammer said.
Although a new cemetery is in the early planning stages, Fawcett said there is a plot of land the city might use.
An empty field located on the corner of Green and Poe roads could be used, Fawcett said.
“The city of Bowling Green does own 40 acres of land outside town,” Fawcett said. “It’s roughly two to three miles west of here. It was purchased way back in the 60s, interestingly, for the purpose of a cemetery.”
Since the city has about a decade to plan the new cemetery, Fawcett said the city is taking its time determining where and how it will be built.
“We won’t jump into this [prematurely],” he said. “We will be exploring all the repercussions and all the permutations of this topic long before the nine years is up.”
While the city is working on building a new cemetery, they will still maintain Oak Grove.
Fawcett said the city will always work to keep Oak Grove in good condition.
“The city of Bowling Green … takes great pride in maintaining a perpetual resting place for those who have come before you and me,” Fawcett said. “We cannot step away from the responsibility we have currently with Oak Grove Cemetery.”
Hammer said Oak Grove will still be used for burials long after every plot has been bought.
“There will still be burials,” Hammer said. “There’s a lot of people that own graves that haven’t been interred. Some families have bought maybe eight graves and they might have bought graves for their kids.”
