A full-time position could be created to care for San Bernardino’s 22-acre Pioneer Memorial Cemetery.
For an annual salary of up to $60,000, the caretaker will manicure lawns; pick up litter; maintain the sprinkler systems; assist service attendants, mortuary directors and families; dig graves; and prepare mausoleum and mausoleum crypts for service.
“Attentive tasks that aren’t included in basic maintenance projects and have really gone undone for several years,” said Jim Tickemyer, city parks and recreation director. “It’s just going to help the overall maintenance of the cemetery.”
The City Council is to vote on the item at Wednesday’s meeting.
Pioneer Memorial, at North Sierra Way and 7th Street, is the final resting place for San Bernardino residents who died as far back as 1856, a staff report says. City park maintenance workers were previously assigned to care for the cemetery.
But as the grounds filled up and revenue decreased, the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department assigned only one full-time staff member to handle irrigation, burials, services and general maintenance.
In 2012, the cemetery beat was eliminated and the caretaker retired, returning later in a part-time role.
Park workers currently assist with burial services, and the city pays a landscape contractor for general mowing and other maintenance needs.
However, the cemetery has fallen victim to continued vandalism in recent years, a staff report says, including the toppling of historic upright headstones and graffiti. Some online reviewers write of gopher holes, broken and buried headstones, stray dogs and homeless people loitering in the graveyard.
A caretaker could address those issues and many other cemetery complexities.
For example, because ground shifting can cause underground vaults and caskets to move, candidates must be able to dig full and dual depth graves inches apart.
The job application will go live on the city’s web page shortly after the council makes its decision, Tickemyer said. “We’re looking to get someone in as soon as possible.”
Pioneer Memorial was purchased for $125 in April 1857, according to the cemetery’s website.
The council meets at 5 p.m. in the Council Chambers, 201 N. E St.