The Tooele City Cemetery will soon have more room than ever before for residents who wish to stay “forever and forever in Tooele.”
The city has begun work to retrofit a previously vacant field in the cemetery’s southwest corner to make room for more than 2,000 additional grave plots, according to Kathy Bell, director of parks and recreation for Tooele City.
Space in the cemetery has become limited, she said in an email, so an expansion was necessary to accommodate demand.
The cemetery does have enough space for two to three years at the current rate of demand, but the city usually expands the cemetery every 10–20 years to keep up with population growth, Bell said.
The total cost of the project is currently unknown, Bell added, but the city is having the work done in-house to save money on the expansion.
The city is installing new top soil, sod and sprinklers in the new cemetery section. Lot markers will be placed every 16 feet to locate available grave spaces.
Bell said plot prices at the city cemetery should remain the same for the time being. Plots typically cost $300–$400 for Tooele City residents and $700–$800 for non-residents.
The city hopes to have the project completed by the end of this year, Bell said, and expects to have the new plots available in spring of 2015.