The Village of Big Valley reviewed their current cemetery bylaw during the regular Thursday, September 23 council meeting following a ratepayer request to include a second urn at the foot of a grave.
Currently, the bylaw permits one casket and one urn, or up to three urns with no casket in each plot.
“We may have lots of room in the cemetery, but if we have any resident who would like to be buried alongside a loved one, I personally am very compassionate,” said Mayor Clark German during the meeting.
Village Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Tracy Mindus noted she reviewed the cemetery bylaws of nearby municipalities, including the Town of Stettler and Town of Olds, and had encountered a varying number of permitted caskets and urns in each of the municipalities she had reviewed.
Mayor German shared he did not have an issue making changes to the cemetery bylaw to permit additional urns or caskets per plot-provided it would not interfere with surrounding plots.
“We’re not viewing the cemetery as a money maker,” Mayor German stated.
Councillor Harry Nibourg motioned for CAO Mindus to continue investigating the cemetery bylaw for other municipalities and to bring back an amendment for council to consider at a future meeting.

Hot, dry conditions with below normal precipitation plagued area farmers throughout the summer months, though conditions have changed slightly from the beginning of August for parts of the South and Central regions.
With increased precipitation the soil moisture reserves have improved from low and moderately low at the end of August to near normal.
“Conditions throughout Starland County were dry and hot, with unseasonable heat occurring during critical periods of crop development in late June through early July,” says Starland County agricultural fieldman Ryan Hallett. “Because of this, many crops did not recover and yielded lower than average.”
Hallett notes rainfall throughout September has slowed harvest, though most of the county’s cereal and legume crops have already been safely harvested.
Farmers are not the only ones who have been affected by the summer’s drought. Cattle and livestock producers have also had to contend with loss of surface water, and low dryland hay yields.
In August the Alberta government announced it would provide $136 million in relief to livestock producers and beekeepers who were impacted by the drought, and on September 7 the province announced an additional $340 million in support program to help cover feed and water access for breeding female livestock.
The provincial crop report shows harvest is ahead of the five and ten year averages by some 21 percent. For the Central region, which includes Kneehill, Starland, and Wheatland County some 45.1 per cent of all crops had been harvested as of Tuesday, September 7--up from the five year average of 16.2 per cent and the ten year average of 15.2 per cent.
County specific reports for the three surrounding counties are not available.