Wright City’s public maintenance team is in a bit of a pickle when it comes to enforcing a rule limiting unauthorized decorations in the city cemetery.

In June, along with changes to cemetery fees, the Wright City Board of Aldermen passed a rule stating flowers are the only permitted decorations in the cemetery. Permanent items such as benches, statues and flower hangers were all deemed obstructions and banned, because they cause impediments that increase the time and effort needed to mow and maintain the cemetery.

In mid-October, Public Works Director Kyle Roettger announced that his staff would follow the ordinance and clear all such items out of the cemetery so they could do final maintenance for the season. But rather than throw the items away, Roettger’s staff carefully labeled and stored them at city hall for families to retrieve.

“I’m not going to throw away a metal bench. I’m sure they’re very expensive,” Roettger commented before removing the items.

But this past week, Roettger told city aldermen that he stopped that cleanup effort and put final maintenance on hold, because people picking up their items from city hall were putting them right back in the cemetery, benches and all. 

“We’re waiting for instruction from the board for what they would like us to do,” Roettger commented. “It’s not just the little stuff. This is a lot. There’s a whole iron structure (at one grave).”

City aldermen said for now, this isn’t a battle worth fighting. They directed Roettger to work around the items to complete final maintenance for the year.

“I straddle the fence on this. Trying to influence the way people grieve is a struggle. You can’t really create an ordinance that says ‘This is what’s going to make you feel better,’” said Ward 1 Alderman Michelle Heiliger. “Going into the winter, we’re not going to (be mowing). And the reality is, we’re going to clean this up over and over again.”

Ward 2 Aldermen Nathan Rohr and Ramiz Hakim agreed, saying that the issue can be revisited in the spring when the city staff does its next cemetery cleanup.

However, Hakim commented that he was proud of the effort city staff had taken to preserve the items that they did remove from the cemetery, even if those items got put right back.

“The amount of care and honor that you took to pick up stuff from people’s grave sites, mark them, and put them out nicely, was a gesture that I don’t think people would ever expect from a government body,” Hakim told Roettger. “Thank you for that. That meant a lot to a lot of people.”