About a year ago, the Summit County Council appointed a board to plan a cemetery in the Snyderville Basin.
Residents outside the 84060 zip code can’t be buried in the Park City Cemetery, which is nearly full anyway. Board chair Max Greenhalgh said many people get referred to the Heber City Cemetery or Salt Lake City instead.
A resident of over four decades, Greenhalgh got involved in the effort because he said his kids have started asking him admittedly “uncomfortable” questions about where he’d like to be buried.
The board is asking similar questions of the entire community.
“We want to know people's attitudes about various sites and the end of life,” Greenhalgh said. “We would like to hear from religions as far as how death fits into their philosophy.”
The board released an initial survey to learn what services residents would like. It also covers how a cemetery would be funded.
Greenhalgh said he’s heard some misconceptions about the property tax the Snyderville Basin Cemetery District could levy.
State law would allow the district to tax up to .0004. Multiply that with the taxable value of your property listed on your latest county tax notification to see how much extra that would be.
But even though that’s the maximum permitted, Greenhalgh said the district won’t need to levy a tax that high. And voters must approve the tax before it’s levied.
Greenhalgh visited the Summit County Council on Jan. 17 to talk about funding. The district needs money to test potential cemetery sites and suggested using a county loan, but councilmembers hesitated because the district doesn’t yet have a tax base to pay it back.
In the meantime, the board continues to consider different publicly-owned parcels around the Snyderville Basin as potential sites. Residents can weigh in on those sites through the survey.
The survey is offered in English and in Spanish.
