Andy Tullis / The BulletinWalkers stride down a pathway in the Pilot Butte Cemetery in Bend Monday morning.

After plans to sell the city-owned Pilot Butte Cemetery were shelved, Bend has worked to maintain the historic cemetery’s grounds while continuing to cope with declining revenue.

Hardy Hanson, manager of Bend’s street division, which oversees the cemetery, said the plan to sell “died on the vine” in 2009 after community backlash and a lack of interest from the Bend City Council. Even with political will behind it, the sale may not have happened, Hanson said, as the number of burials at the cemetery have dropped sharply, reflecting a nationwide trend of people opting for cremations instead of traditional burials. Because traditional burials cost more, cemeteries across the nation have struggled with the change.

“It’s simply not a huge moneymaker,” Hanson said. “It’s not like it used to be, where everyone used to have their own plot. With cremations, a family doesn’t need as many plots. All of this barely creates enough funding to maintain the cemetery.”

It actually doesn’t generate enough money to maintain the cemetery, as the city included general fund transfers worth $80,000 in its 2013-15 biennium budget to help keep the cemetery in shape. Hardy said the aim is to get “to a balance” over time.

“It’s about trying to find that balance where people are still accepting of the maintenance,” Hardy said. “We can’t just keep throwing time and effort at it. Right now, we have funding for about one and half people to do the work.”

That full person is Bobbie Rader, who became the cemetery’s sexton during the previous biennium. Rader oversees all aspects of the cemetery, but she said most of her efforts are spent gardening.

“I like being outside, I like yardwork,” she said. “I don’t like raking, but it’s gratifying when you’re out there with all the animals and nature.”

Rader said deer are a common sight, especially after a service.

“They come and eat the flowers,” she said. “I swear they almost know when to come.”

Hanson said Rader does “a dynamite job,” but acknowledged that with one person spread across 40 acres, not everything will be as neat as possible.

“I understand there’s a sentiment people have, they want it to be maintained beautifully,” Hanson said. “But street maintenance is our core responsibility and where my priorities lie.”

Additional funding for projects — such as the addition of fences or repairs — is available from the state’s Historic Cemeteries Program, though Pilot Butte Cemetery has not received any such awards. The cemetery qualifies as historic because it has a gravestone older than Valentine’s Day 1909, a date selected because the majority of those buried before that would be considered pioneers.

Kuri Gill, the Historic Cemeteries Program coordinator, said such cemeteries offer “interesting stories of how a community changes over time.”

Because of such cultural benefits, the states provides historic cemeteries additional legal protection. If Pilot Butte Cemetery were vandalized, for instance, the perpetrator could be forced to pay restitution based on the “historical value” of the item damaged.

“For the ones that are open to the public in the day, we do encourage people to go visit them for the right reasons, in part because that scares away people visiting for the wrong reasons,” Gill said. “We want people to see what they have to offer and to appreciate them. They’re a beautiful part of the community, and a real resource.”

— Reporter: 541-633-2160, tleeds@bendbulletin.com