New ‘Friends of Sonoma Cemeteries’ calling for board members

Sonoma City Historian George McKale is forming a non-profit organization, Friends of the City of Sonoma Cemeteries, to support and restore the three sites and keep them in public hands. The group will raise money to help offset a deficit of $80,00 to $90,000 per year and promote the historical significance of the properties, two of which are among the oldest cemeteries in California.
McKale and Diane Smith of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society are the organization’s initial board members. The goal is to form a larger board to direct fundraising activities, including paid cemetery tours and special events.
The city owns and maintains three cemeteries: the 4-acre Valley Cemetery, on East MacArthur Street, which Vallejo deeded to the city in 1835; the 60-acre Mountain Cemetery, founded in 1841 on land also given to the city by Vallejo; and the 1.6-acre Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery, first developed in 2002.
The city had entertained the idea last fall of selling the three properties. A town meeting held to discuss the issue, in December, drew a large crowd that was overwhelmingly opposed to any sale. The idea of a private company on such hallowed ground was unsettling to those with family members buried there. Others argued that the settings are local landmarks that belong to everyone.
“Selling the cemeteries would be tantamount to selling the Plaza,” former mayor Larry Barnett commented at that meeting. “To place them into the hands of a private organization or business, to me, would be an absolute tragedy.”
McKale serves on the city council’s ad hoc cemetery committee, which, reflecting public sentiment, recommended to the council not to sell. The idea for the city to lease cemetery operations out while maintaining ownership has also been rejected. “It’s a community cemetery,” he said, “and it needs to be kept in community hands.”
On the business end, two modes of burial gaining popularity – green burial and co-mingling – could boost revenue and conserve limited interment space, McKale said. On the fundraising side, he sees “Friends” as a membership-driven organization, with supporters receiving a quarterly newsletter. Fundraising events such as nighttime tours and in-cemetery spaghetti dinners, which have been successful at other scenic cemeteries, will be looked at.
McKale recalls that about 40 people spoke at the December meeting in favor of keeping the cemeteries under city control. “Now I need some of them to call me,” he said.
For information about joining the Friends of the City of Sonoma Cemeteries board of directors, call George McKale at 707.337.0788 or e-mail georgemckale@comcast.net