In the midst of a three-year-old lawsuit and even longer history of dispute between Millville City and the Millville-Nibley Cemetery District, Millville City Mayor David Hair has asked the Cache County Council to appoint all new members to the district.
“It seems that the present board that we have had, we’ve had issues with in the way of lawsuits,” Hair said in an April 26 County Council meeting. “We’re the type of community that likes to work with people, and we just feel as a council it might be time to move on with a new board.”
The lawsuit Hair referenced was filed in 2019, though the roots of the disagreement reach back to the beginning of the cemetery in 1886, when it was composed of six acres donated to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Able Garr after his wife’s death. According to Erin Byington, the lawyer currently representing the cemetery district, the church took on the role of maintaining cemeteries at the time. Sometime in the 16 years following Garr’s donation, Johannes Anderson turned a piece of his land into a roadway and entrance into the cemetery, giving the property to the church in what Byington described as “a handshake deal.” Read the rest of the story on HJnews.com.
This story is made possible thanks to a community reporting partnership between The Herald Journal and Utah Public Radio.
