Niverville Town Council passed a cemetery bylaw and awarded a tender for the opening and closing of graves in the community.

Mayor Myron Dyck says each municipality has an obligation to provide a cemetery to their residents. He notes there are two cemeteries in Niverville and the town may be taking on more responsibilities of those cemeteries in the future.

"We have an organization in our community called Niverville Funeral Aide which has essentially been managing this for many years. Recently volunteers age and things change and they came to council and said ‘you know, we might need some help’. We are now looking at what help we do have to cemeteries in our community."

Dyck says of the two Niverville cemeteries, the town owns one and two local churches own the other. He notes this new bylaw will set protocols for the maintenance and managing of the cemeteries so that there are set standards for anyone looking to help manage the cemeteries.

"We are giving proper jurisdiction to who does what and where to make sure that the general population is still being served, but what does this mean. Part of it is we have to set up bylaws, so that is everything from the size of headstones to how things are going to be maintained and the logistics of how things are going to occur."

Dyck says town council also awarded the tender for opening and closing graves to Valleywest Landscaping. He notes it is a four-year agreement for $700 per grave for the first two years and $750 for the second two.