Springdale Cemetery is putting together a two-year budget. Bob Manning is the chairman of the cemetery management authority. He says it's a way to better plan for large, expensive projects that cannot be completed in a year.
Manning says the authority will also be looking for ways to expand the 350-thousand dollar base budget it receives from the cemetery’s intergovernmental ownership agreement. The Peoria Park District contributes 40-thousand dollars a year, the County pays 60 and the city of Peoria picks up the remainder, which has been about 250-thousand dollars a year.
Authority Chair Bob Manning says, “The number one challenge is to increase revenue sources, whether that is grant funding and that becomes more competitive and you can’t rely on that but we need a more dependable recurring stream of revenues.”
Manning says a group of skilled marketing professionals has volunteered to help the cemetery. He says Springdale needs to find ways to expand sales of traditional burials, spreading of ashes, and possibly green burials. But it’s unclear how viable that option is. It’s been a long-standing effort of the cemetery since it came under the intergovernmental agreement.