Many of my family members are buried in this cemetery; my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and several aunts and uncles. I do not want to see it fall into a state of disrepair.

I know the costs of keeping the cemetery beautiful have outpaced the district’s revenue, and the current board of directors has done a great job with what they have to work with. Fortunately, when revenue was better, the district was able to upgrade some things, such as, building the chapel and tool shed, adding the columbarium and vinyl fencing and creating the burns. We need to maintain these improvements.

Now that property values have decreased to about 50 percent of what they were several years ago, and the district’s other fairly significant source of revenue, gas royalties from mineral rights on cemetery property, have declined almost 80 percent, revenue is down to a dangerous point while expenses have increased substantially. The requested mill levy of 0.15 is quite low in comparison to other districts in the area; for example, the Ignacio-Oxford-Allison Cemetery District mill levy is 0.244.

Ballots will be mailed two weeks before Nov. 5. Please vote “yes” on issue 5D! This issue is the last item on the ballot.

Kathryn Hickman Aliano

Centennial