Sterling Community Cemetery

Cemetery Costs

• $350.00: Adult Burial Space ($21.00 deed registration)
• $450.00:  Adult Burial Space out of City and Township Limits ($21.00 deed registration)
• $350.00: Opening and closing fee for adult, due upon opening
• $350.00: Cremation opening and closing fee, due upon opening
• $150.00: Child Burial Space - 4 feet or less (+ $21.00 deed registration)
• $150.00: Opening and closing fee for child, due upon opening
• $150.00: Saturday Funeral Fee
• $500.00: Disinterment
• $10.00 : Monument Setting for Single Stone
• $15.00 : Monument Setting for Double Stone

To purchase a space, contact Susan Plett @ the City office at (620) 278-3423, or email splett@sterling-kansas.com

For cemetery maintenance issues, contact Matt Schmitt at 620-282-7909 or email mschmitt@sterling-kansas.com. 

For historical and additional information: Sterling Cemetery website.

Rules and Regulations of Sterling Community Cemetery

RULE 1. No person will be allowed to enter the cemetery grounds one hour after sunset or one hour before sunrise without prior permission.

RULE 2. All graves dug in said Cemetery shall be dug by the regularly employed caretaker thereof or under his /her supervision. The cost rate of opening and closing graves: Child's grave four feet or less: $150.00; Adult vault: $350.00; Cremation urn: $350.00; an additional $150.00 for a Saturday funeral fee and $500.00 for Disinterment. At least 24 hours advance notice shall be given to Clerk-Treasurer or designee before interment.

RULE 3. All burials at the Sterling Community Cemetery shall have the casket or body enclosed within a concrete or steel receptacle which will hold the weight of the covering soil.

Rule 4. a) The price of lots shall be $350.00 for each allowable grave space on the lot or portion of a lot and shall include perpetual care. b) The price of infant lots shall be $150.00 for each allowable grave space. c) No deed shall be issued to any lot until after the purchase price and the cost of recording the same shall have been paid in full. Upon payment the Clerk-Treasurer shall issue a deed to the purchasers of lots. All deeds shall recite that their execution is subject to all the rules and regulations governing the cemetery.

Rule 5. No person shall be permitted to dig a grave, place a vault or bury remains in the Cemetery without first securing and paying for a permit to do so from the Clerk-Treasurer of the Cemetery Board. The Clerk-Treasurer shall not issue such permit until the person applying therefore has paid for a deed to lot or to a single burial space or has produced the written consent, duly acknowledge, of a lot owner in said Cemetery to bury on his/her lot. Cemetery Regulations require burial permits to be obtained and presented before interment of bodies, or cremains, or as soon thereafter as they are obtainable; provided the Clerk and Sexton are notified before interment. Exceptions will be brought to the attention of the Board.

RULE 6. Lots are sold and used for no other purpose than the burial of the human dead, and such incidental uses as are proper and suitable for a cemetery lot.

RULE 7. The Cemetery Board of Trustees shall have the right to refuse any portion of any parcel of ground owned by it, to the use of any specific person.

RULE 8. No sale, assignment or transfer of a lot or parts of lots shall be valid without the consent of the Board of Trustees. Said sale, assignment or transfer shall be recorded in the Register of Deeds Office of Rice County, Kansas, by the purchaser or assignee before the transaction will be recognized by the Board of Trustees.

RULE 9. No advertisements of any form will be permitted in the cemetery.

RULE 10. The Cemetery Board will not give joint deeds to lots and any division between persons will have to be by deed or assignment subject to the conditions set out in Rule 8.

RULE 11. When more than one person claims an interest in a lot or part of any lot, no visible line will be allowed.

RULE 12. No lot owner will have the right to have a body interred within the bounds of his or her lot, for any remuneration or hire of space.

RULE 13. When a lot owner dies, the heirs or devises will be recognized according to the laws of the State of Kansas, and it shall be the duty of the heirs or devisees to file with the Clerk-Treasurer proof of ownership and no interments shall be made until such proof is made.

RULE 14. a) Orders for interments and disinterment's must be in writing, signed by the lot owner or owners, upon proper blank furnished by the Clerk-Treasurer or upon notification of the funeral director in charge of burial service before the grave will be opened. b) If the lot is owned by a lodge, society or any organization, the order must be signed by the officer or officers having authority to act.

RULE 15. No double burials will be allowed: that is, two burials in one grave, except when the bodies can be placed in one ordinary outside container or as cremains.

RULE 16. No gravel, stone, brick, cement or any kind of artificial walks will be allowed upon any lot, or part of lot, nor will any boxes, shells, trinkets, toys or any like object be permitted.

RULE 17. All lots will be marked and put in order by the Cemetery Board. No private fencing, coping or enclosure of any kind will be allowed around lots or graves.

No elevated lots, grave mounds, or the planting of any plant, tree, vine or shrub, will be allowed. The Cemetery Board will remove any plant, tree, vine or shrub planted in the violation of this rule. The Cemetery Board reserves the right to remove any tree, plant, vine or shrub, now growing or dead or fencing, coping or enclosure, if in its judgment, the same should become detrimental or unsightly.

RULE 18. Taking flowers, breaking or injuring any tree, plant, or any other property within the cemetery is strictly prohibited.

RULE 19. The private installation of sprinkler systems will be prohibited upon any lot; nor will any water lines be allowed to be tied into the Cemetery water system.

RULE 20. It shall be unlawful for any person to drive any vehicle in the cemetery faster than 10 miles per hour. Vehicles must keep strictly in the roads and driveways.

RULE 21. Firearms will be allowed only with Military funeral services or Memorial Day services.

RULE 22. No organizations, groups of people or person shall use the cemetery grounds or Chapel without permission of the Board.

RULE 23. It shall be unlawful for any person to allow or permit any dog to run at-large within the Cemetery. Any person entering the Cemetery with a dog must keep the dog on a leash or confined to a vehicle.

RULE 24. Above-ground mausoleums and vaults may be entered in the Sterling Community Cemetery if they are no higher than forty-eight (48) inches above ground level and have a width of no more than two grave spaces. Monument dealers or any person desiring to erect a mausoleum or vault above ground must first submit to the Clerk-Treasurer specifications showing the size of the mausoleum or vault and the plan and materials to be used in constructing the base upon which the mausoleum or vault is to be placed, together with the location of the same, and no work shall be done until the construction of the same is authorized in writing by the Clerk-Treasurer upon the form provided. Other above-ground mausoleums and vaults may be erected by the consent of the Cemetery Board.

RULE 25. In all parts of the cemetery, monuments or headstones shall be entered only on the west line of the block or half block with the back side of the monument on a north-south line. In the North Section of the Cemetery, a single headstone will have a width of no more than 40 inches and a double headstone will be no more than 76 inches. Headstones shall not exceed 48 inches in height. Grave markers or foot stones shall not exceed 12 inches x 24 inches and shall be placed flush with the ground at the east end of the grave. If there is no monument or headstone then the grave marker or foot stone shall be placed as if it were a monument or headstone.

RULE 26. Monument dealers or any person placing grave markers must first submit to the Cemetery Board, specifications showing size and material to be used and no work shall be done until the construction is authorized in writing by the Clerk-Treasurer. A permit will then be issued at the cost of $10.00 for the setting of a single stone and $15.00 for the setting of a double stone. Workers and laborers doing work of owners of lots shall be under the immediate direction of the sexton.

RULE 27. The Cemetery Board will provide perpetual care, general operations and maintenance funds for all cemetery lots. Eighty percent of all lot sales shall and will be set aside into Perpetual Care Reserve Fund, the income from which shall be placed into the general operating fund. The remaining 20 percent of lot sales shall be placed into the general operating fund.