News

By Jane Smith

    Boynton Beach wants to stop out-of-towners from being buried at its city cemetery because it is running out of space.
    In early February, the City Commission approved new rules that would allow only full-time residents, their immediate families and direct descendants to purchase grave sites at Boynton Beach Memorial Park.
    Former commissioners and mayors also were given burial-access rights, along with military veterans.
In addition, exceptions were made for former residents who moved away after living in Boynton Beach for at least 10 years.
    Vice Mayor Mack McCray brought up the issue in December when he heard about a nonresident using a Boynton Beach church address to be able to save money at a city cemetery.
    Previously, the city charged residents $525 and nonresidents $1,125 to be buried at Memorial Park. Following the February change, the city will collect only the resident fee.
    “Ours is more economical than Broward County and if we don’t do something they’ll be coming from Broward to be buried in our cemetery and we just can’t do it,” McCray said.
    The cemetery sits on 12.3 acres at the southwest corner of Seacrest Boulevard and Woolbright Road.
    The land remained in private hands until the 1950s, when the city acquired the cemetery from the developer of High Point. The cemetery first ran out of space in 2004, but it was replatted three times since then.
    More than a year ago, the City Commission directed staff to replat the cemetery by eliminating internal roads and buildings. That created 410 plots for a total of 820 gravesites.
    Other nearby cities, including Delray Beach and Boca Raton, restrict burial in their cemeteries to residents.