Sunday, July 04, 1999
City 'inherits' $1.8 million
Lebanon makes plans for using tax windfall
BY DAVID ECK
Enquirer Contributor
LEBANON — This city's historic cemetery could be getting a major overhaul, thanks to a surprising $1.8 million windfall.
Council members are trying to decide what to do with the $1.8 million the city recently received in inheri tance taxes from the estate of resident Corwin Cropper. Some members are in general agreement that the bulk of the money should be spent fixing up the city's cemetery, which opened in 1850.
“This is a very unusual thing,” said Councilman Joe McKenzie. “This is the first time we've ever had this big of a tax. Mr. Cropper's (daughter) told us how he used to love our cemetery.”
Typically the city receives about $50,000 a year in inheritance taxes.
“It was incredible,” said Councilman John McComb, who also supports upgrading the cemetery. “You don't know when that's going to come or go. The money's going to be used very, very efficiently and it couldn't have come at a better time.”
Possible plans for the cemetery include fixing the roads, removing old trees and replacing them, upgrading the entrance and buying property behind the cemetery to create an additional entrance, Mr. McKenzie said. Council also might repair the crypt in the cemetery.
“We kind of keep it up, but we haven't spent a lot on bringing it up to where we'd like it to be,” he said. “We don't want this to just sink into the operating budget and just disappear.”
The city has been in contact with officials from Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, who have toured the Lebanon parcel. City staff have also talked with a landscape architect about de signing a plan for Lebanon's cemetery, Mr. McKenzie said.
In addition to a design for the main cemetery, the architect might create plans for the cemetery's entrance and for the Pioneer Cemetery on Ohio 63.
Mr. McComb said council might take about $1.2 million and invest it, using the interest to do the cemetery work. The principal could serve as a perpetual endowment fund.
Other potential uses for the rest of the money include setting some aside for a possible community center/amphitheater and buying an ambulance.
Though the city itself does not have an inheritance tax, it gets a portion of the state's share of inheritance taxes, Mr. McComb said. The state inheritance tax is separate from the federal estate tax, Mr. McKenzie said.
“The odds of that happening again in the city's near future are remote,” Mr. McComb said. “We may never see that again.”
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