The City of Springfield may have to take financial responsibility for the operations of Oak Ridge Cemetery.
That warning comes from city budget director Bill McCarty, who is asking aldermen to approve $380,000 to cover the cemetery’s expenses for the rest of the current fiscal year.
Eventually, McCarty says the city may have to pay for the cemetery’s entire operating budget.
Oak Ridge is suffering from a drop-off in burials, and is not taking in enough to meet expenses.
Oak Ridge is the second-most-visited cemetery in the United States, because of its status as the burial place of Abraham Lincoln.
