Exercise 6.2

Lynchburg City Council met Monday night to vote against rezoning a cemetery to build a supermarket, to vote for a 1 cent sales tax and to vote for an annual license fee for morticians.

Metropolitan Zoning Commission chairman, Bobby Thompson, petitioned to move the cemetery on the 2800 block of Forbes St. so a supermarket my be built. Carl Erskine, the developer seeking to build the supermarket, is willing to pay all costs of having graves relocated to Peaceful Rest Cemetery, which is located about a mile away from the present site.

“I just can’t believe you’d do this. Anybody who’d do this would steal the dimes off a dead man’s eyes,” Sarah Yawkey said.

After 20 people spoke, all but two of them against the rezoning, the council voted 5–2 against rezoning the cemetery.

Councilwoman Wilma Rudolph proposed a 1 cent sales tax that would raise about $400,000 for the city next year and prevent layoffs from work. Mayor Ray Sadecki was against the tax, stating that he believed the people are already too heavily taxed.

The majority disagreed with the mayor and voted 5–2 for the tax.

Councilman Bill Mazeroski proposed that the city should enforce the licensing of morticians for $150 annually. Several morticians in the crowd spoke against the bill, stating their concern that the state might take the money so the city could not make use of the fee.

Mazeroski did not wish to wait for the attorney general’s opinion, so the council voted 6–1 to table the bill.

The Lynchburg City Council met Monday night with a crowd of over 200 people present to vote 5–2 against rezoning the historical cemetery at 2800 Forbes St. to make way for a new supermarket.