An ad hoc committee created by the Sonoma City Council to address the potential sale of Sonoma’s three city-owned cemeteries will make its recommendation to keep them under city ownership and jurisdiction at next Wednesday’s Dec. 17 City Council meeting. The committee was originally scheduled to advise the council at its Jan. 21 meeting; however, after meeting on Dec. 9, the group decided it was ready to bring its recommendation forward before Jan. 21.
In a special Town Hall meeting on Dec. 4, strong opposition to the potential sale was voiced by many in the community. At issue was the $80,000 to $90,000 annual deficit incurred by the three city-owned cemeteries: the 4-acre Valley Cemetery, deeded to the city in 1835 by General Vallejo; the 60-acre Mountain Cemetery, founded in 1841 on land deeded to the city by General Vallejo; and the 1.6-acre Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery, acquired in 1996 and developed in 2002.
The ad hoc committee is chaired by Sonoma City Councilmember August Sebastiani and includes Mayor Ken Brown; Milenka Bates, city of Sonoma public works director; George McKale, city historian; Carol Giovanato, assistant city manager; Robert Arnold of the Sonoma Veterans Association; and Duffy Conneely, funeral director at Duggan’s Mission Chapel.
