Idaho § 50-320 - Cemeteries

§ 50-320. Cemeteries

All cities shall have the following powers in regard to cemeteries:

A. Acquisition. - Purchase, hold and pay for, in the manner herein provided, lands not exceeding eighty (80) acres in one (1) body outside of the corporate limits, and all necessary grounds including any lands as have heretofore been laid out or platted and offered for sale for cemetery purposes, excepting such portions thereof as have been heretofore sold for cemetery purposes, hospital grounds or waterworks. For the purpose of purchasing such lands and maintaining the same, any city may levy a tax of not more than four hundredths percent (.04%) of the market value for assessment purposes in any one (1) year on all taxable property within the limits of the city, and exercise the right of eminent domain under the provisions of chapter 7 of title 7 , Idaho Code, in the taking or securing of such grounds and property.

B. Improvement. - Survey, plat, map, grade, fence, ornament and otherwise improve all burial and cemetery grounds and streets owned by the city leading thereto; construct walks and protect ornamental trees therein and provide for paying the costs thereof.

C. Conveyance of lots. - Convey cemetery lots by certificates signed by the mayor and countersigned by the clerk, under the seal of the city, specifying that the person to whom the same is issued is the owner of the lot or lots, described therein by number as laid down on such map or plat. Such certificates shall vest in the proprietor, his or her heirs or assigns, a right in fee simple to said lots for the sole purpose of interment, under the regulations of the city council. Such certificates shall be entitled to be recorded in the office of the county recorder of the proper county without further acknowledgment, and such description of lots shall be deemed and recognized as a sufficient description thereof.

D. Regulation. - Limit the number of cemetery lots which may be owned by any person; prescribe rules for inclosing, adorning, and erecting monuments and tombstones on cemetery lots; prohibit any diversion of the use of such lots and any improper adornment thereof; but no religious test shall be made as to the ownership of lots, the burial therein or the ornamentation of graves or of such lots.

E. Penalties. - Pass rules and ordinances imposing penalties and fines not exceeding the amount permissible in probate and justice courts, regulating, protecting and governing the cemetery, the owners of lots therein, visitors thereto and trespassers therein; and the officials of the city shall have as full jurisdiction and power in the enforcing of such rules as though they related to the corporation itself.

[50-320, added 1967, ch. 429, sec. 39, p. 1249; am. 1995, ch. 82, sec. 23, p. 233.]