The relocation of graves at risk from slope instability in the Battleford Cemetery is to begin this year.
Monday, Battleford town councillors moved to award the relocation project to Eternal Memories Funeral Service and Crematorium, a local company founded by licensed funeral director and embalmer Trevor Watts in 2012, with the first phase to begin in 2015.
No cost was included in the motion, however the Town has been approved for $500,000 worth of Provincial Disaster Assistance Program funding. Eternal Memories Funeral Service and Crematorium was the only one of the three local funeral homes contacted to submit a proposal.
Mayor Derek Mahon said the at risk site has been fenced off recently and headstones that were leaning over have been supported. The work will be done in phases until all the at-risk graves have been relocated.
Eternal Memories has "assembled a team that's very experienced in this type of work," said the mayor. "They've had some experience of this in the past, a team of individuals who have worked in cemetery ongoing maintenance for a number of years so we are looking forward to working with them on this project."
The process to deal with the results of slope instability at the cemetery, which is perched along the bank of the North Saskatchewan River, has been working its way through council and government for the last year and a half. While the PDAP funding is based on the conclusion that a June 2013 rain event caused the current tension cracks and downslope movement, stability of the cemetery has been an issue of contention for much longer than that.
A newspaper column written by Jim MacNeill appearing in the Oct. 4, 1996 edition of The Battleford Telegraphdescribes the grave of a former superintendent of Fort Battleford, buried in 1899, in danger of tumbling down the collapsing bank.
"It's always been a very sensitive issue and we hope the project will move forward in a respectful and professional manner," said Mahon Monday.
A number of the graves are of pioneers of the area who died in the 1800s to early 1900s, he said, and the Town would be working on a public notice to descendants of those early residents within the next few weeks.
He said if anyone has any concerns or questions they can contact the town office and leave their name and number.
"I, or somebody, will get back to them if they have any concern with their family members," said the mayor.
Relating some of the background of the issue, Mahon said the Town had contracted Meridian Surveys to establish benchmarks, baseline and ongoing monitoring of the area in 2013.
P. Machibroda Engineering Ltd. was brought in to look at options and slope stabilization issues. They brought in a report back in Jan. 31 of 2014, he said.
"They talked about a number of ways to look at the area," said Mahon. "There [were] a couple of options they proposed. One was slope flattening, another one was berm construction and the third option, at the bottom of the report, was grave relocation."
Two of the remediation options been proposed by P. Machibroda Engineering Ltd. had costs of $1.37 million and $1.48 million attached to them.
Next, a request was sent to the government of Saskatchewan, said Mahon.
"We sent them a letter with the report," he said. "The government looked at it and sent it off to the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program."
There was an application made to that program, said Mahon, who brought in Golder Associates Ltd., another geotechnical firm, to evaluate the situation on their behalf.
Finally, he said, there was a decision by the PDAP to fund a maximum of $500,000 to rectify the situation.
The Town received word of the approval in October of 2014.
The 2014 P. Machibroda Engineering Ltd. report suggested that if affected plots and headstone were to be moved they should be moved outside a recommended 35-metre setback from the crest of the slope.
Another option in the report was to "do nothing" and monitor the slope for additional movement. However, the report also said the current slope is unstable and additional sinkage should be expected and may worsen over time.
"There is also the risk of catastrophic failure where the collapse of the slope crest could occur," said the report.
The report also advised against irrigating the cemetery, which had been considered by council members since the development of the Kramer Ltd. property across the highway had meant the installation of a water line to that area.
The Town of Battleford’s cemetery is one of two cemeteries within the town. There is also a North West Mounted Police Cemetery located off Central Avenue near 19th Street that predates the community cemetery, although burials have taken place there as recently as 1982. With its beginnings in 1885, it served townspeople as well as police until the community cemetery was established in April of 1889.
