MOUNT VERNON — Council members will be asked to vote on legislation establishing a cremation scattering garden in Mound View Cemetery and tax incentives for a developer at their meeting Monday.
The proposed garden would sit in a low-lying, largely unusable section of cemetery behind its former office and main entrance. It is visible from Wooster Road.
At the July 27 council meeting, Safety-Service Director Tanner Salyers described plans to landscape the site with a native pollinator garden and a series of small, walkable sections — each roughly the size of a few traditional grave plots — where remains could be scattered.
The city brought on an experienced designer to help shape the space.
Salyers said the garden is for the public, not just the indigent.
A monument near the entrance would list names, birth and death dates of those memorialized there, with a symbol marking veterans.
No marker would distinguish an indigent burial from any other. Salyers said the Mount Vernon police chaplains would conduct scattering ceremonies several times a year.
“It won’t change our responsibility to cremate and to take care of an indigent. It will change the response, the way that we handle the internment and disposition of the individual,” Salyers said.
An alternative to traditional burial
The current policy for indigent interment is cremation and burying the remains. Both the individual and the person surrendering the individual must be indigent under the Ohio Revised Code.
The city files no obituary and there is no public ceremony.
“If we switch over to this style of disposition, not just indigent but also people who may be at the end of life but have financial issues and can’t afford a traditional burial, they’re still having some dignity by being memorialized on this wall,” Salyers said.
Salyers said reduced cost is an ancillary, not primary, reason for creating a scattering garden.
Typically, the city holds cremains until there are four individuals to be buried. The proposed legislation institutes a mandatory 90-day hold on cremains, providing a chance for loved ones to claim them.
Non-indigent residents can chose to inter cremains in the garden for a cost of $1,000. That covers the memorial plaque and perpetual care.
Tax incentives for Arista Villas and Founders Grove
Mount Vernon granted Founders Grove a commercial TIF (tax incentive financing) in September 2024.
The TIF requires the developer to make payments to the Mount Vernon City School District and Knox County Career Center equal to the amount the schools would receive without a TIF.
It also authorizes payment to the developer for certain developer public improvements.
Monday’s legislation consents to and approves the execution of the 2024 TIF agreement.
Two pieces on Monday’s agenda relate to the Arista Villas housing subdivision.
The first adds the property to Mount Vernon’s New Community Authority. The second establishes two incentive districts, approves and consents to a TIF agreement with Arista Villas, and creates a fund to hold TIF revenue.
The Arista Villas TIF also requires the developer to make payments to the schools and authorizes the city to reimburse the developer for public improvements.
Residents have pushed back against the Arista Villas legislation, saying the developer should incur the costs for public infrastructure.
In an email to council members, resident Don Carr asked them to vote no on the NCA ordinance if TIF money can be used inside the private property lines of the subdivision.
Alternatively, he asked that they include the following phrase if they choose to support adding Arista Villas to the NCA:
“No revenues generated by the New Community Authority through the use of Tax Increment Financing will be used for construction or financing of any street, roadway, utility, or other infrastructure located within the Vernonview development Parcel No. 66-07961.000.”
The council was scheduled to vote on the legislation at their July 27 meeting but postponed them to Aug. 10.
