Situated on a hillside, Hilltop Cemetery is best described as a rustic cemetery nestled in ponderosa pines…
— from the Town of Pagosa Springs website
The Town of Pagosa Springs published an ad in the weekly newspaper recently, warning people about the Hilltop Cemetery Fall Clean-Up. Tuesday, October 1, was the deadline for removing any faded plastic flowers from your family member’s grave.
The ad read, in part:
To assist Town crews in the clean-up of the cemetery prior to winter, and to provide a safe environment for loved ones and visitors, please remove the following items from burial plots, driveways, paths, or rights-of-way before Tuesday, October 1, 2024:
Artificial flowers & shrubs which are faded and falling apart
Statues which are broken and in disrepair
Disposable vases which are broken and in disrepair
(may be replaced after the clean-up)…
A few years ago, a small group of well-meaning citizens approached the Town Council with a well-meaning complaint. The rustic Hilltop Cemetery was a bit too rustic, they complained. It looked abandoned. Overgrown. Untidy. If it weren’t for the headstones, you might think you were walking in the wilderness, even though you were only a half mile from the center of downtown.
Could the Town government do something about it? Show a little community pride? Make it look like a cemetery, instead of a national forest?
The Town considered the request, and directed staff to make the place more presentable.
One of the things that attracted me to Pagosa Springs, back when I moved here in 1993, was a certain rustic, ‘Western’ feel. Like I had arrived in a town still coming out of the Cowboys & Indians era.
Not that things needed to stay that way, necessarily. Everything changes, as new people arrive with new ideas and new complaints. I brought my own ideas, one of which was that Pagosa could stay rustic, and I’d be just fine with that.
That didn’t happen. Pagosa slowly upgraded its appearance and was dragged (kicking and screaming?) into the 21st century. Even the Hilltop Cemetery is now reasonably clean and modern.
Part of being modern is having rules, and the Town now has an 11-page book of rules, explaining what can and cannot happen in the Hilltop Cemetery.
These Rules and Regulations for the Hilltop Cemetery are adopted for the mutual protection of all burial plot and lot Owners, burials, and the Town of Pagosa Springs (the “Town”) and for the purpose of insuring the uniform and permanent beauty of the Cemetery. The Rules and Regulations intend to preserve the natural mountain aesthetic of the cemetery land and establish the expectation of professional management of the cemetery into the future.
For example, professional management now means you can no longer smoke in the cemetery.
Also, “Hilltop Cemetery shall only accept the remains or cremains of human beings as biologically and legally defined. No animal, pet, wild animal, or other non-human may be interred.”
And, “Peddling of flowers or plants or the soliciting for the sale of any commodity is absolutely prohibited within the confines of the Cemetery.”
I drove through the cemetery on the morning of Tuesday, October 1, to see how the cleanup was proceeding.
I didn’t see anyone doing cleanup at 10:30am — in fact, I didn’t see anyone, period.
Only a couple of deer, minding their own business.
But I can say, the cemetery already looked quite tidy. It seemed obvious the Town crews had been making a concerted effort to keep the cemetery up to a certain standard of ‘cemeteryness’.
Or maybe the families have taken it upon themselves to spruce things up?
Yes, I did see some plastic or fabric flowers that looked faded, and some old plastic vases. Perhaps they will be removed at some point, and added to the collection of unacceptable decorations piled in a far corner of the cemetery.
When I returned home, I downloaded the Rules. You never know when you might need to follow them.
I understand the cost of burying your loved one at Hilltop has increased.
Fees
- Plot Fee Residents: $700.00 ($550 for the plot and $150 perpetual maintenance fee)
- Plot Fee Non-Resident: $1,100.00 ($950 for the plot and $150 perpetual maintenance fee)
- Perpetual Maintenance Fee: $150 for plots purchased prior to 01/18/2018
- Interment Application Fee: $50.00
- Headstone Deposit: $350.00 (refunded when permanent marker place at site)
$150 for perpetual maintenance seems like a screaming deal. Perpetual is a really long time.
But I don’t fully understand the reasons for charging a different fee for “Residents” and “Non-Residents”.
I assume you become a resident as soon as you’re buried there?