At their August 7 meeting, the Flandreau city council approved the second reading of ordinance 579 amending Title 10 of the cemetery after tabling the item at their previous meeting.

A motion had been tabled at the July 17 meeting after Cemetery Advisor Mike Skroch and a few members of the community voiced concerns about the presumption of abandonment article.

The council voted to table the second reading until Paul Lewis, city attorney, rewrote the section of the ordinance with their suggestions.

Council members voted at a June meeting, during the first reading of the amended ordinance, to consider a gravesite abandoned after 20 consecutive years of no contact from the owner.

Last Monday, Lewis presented the council with two options for the section on abandonment of gravesites.

The first version would move the presumption of abandonment from 20 to 80 consecutive years that the city is unable to communicate with the owner of the unused lot or grave.

The second version would not be a presumption of abandonment, just simply abandonment.

In the event an interested party contacts the city about the purchase of a lot that is identified as being owned, the city may review and determine whether the owner has abandoned the lot.

“Now we’re waiting for somebody to come in and say they’d like to buy it, rather than us have a presumption that it’s abandoned,” Lewis said.

In making the determination of abandonment, the city will first send a letter to the owner’s last known address if available and if there is no response, the city will publish a public notice describing coordinates, name of the owner's next of kin, detail of facts and failure of the owner or survivors to keep the city informed of the owner’s address for a period of 60 consecutive years or more.

The notice would run two times in consecutive weeks. After 120 days, the city will have the right to sell.

Council members agreed that waiting for an inquiry into a particular lot and determining abandonment rather the presuming abandonment would make the most sense.

They voted to approve the second option and amended Title 10 of the cemetery ordinance.

The Flandreau city council also:

approved a final pay release for the downtown street light project from Dakota Directional for $9,960.36.

approved a request from the Federal Aviation Administration to transfer $61,000 from the city’s 2014 entitlements to the city of Webster.

approved an invoice for airport engineering totaling $1,611.20 for the mini-master plan.