Grave dilemma

One of Steve Tercero's relatives died about a month ago.

He knew things could get expensive because he's been to a lot of funerals over the years.

But he never imagined his family would have to pay a funeral home $300 extra because the county couldn't bury his brother-in-law's mother on a Saturday.

"Here in the last two years, we've buried quite a few family members, and it's tough when you have to prolong that process," Tercero said. "If you've got jobs and a family, you can't just drop everything and be there."

Rose Hill Cemetery hasn't had any Saturday burials for the past 2 1/2 months because workers have racked up too many extra manhours to get the job done without violating the county's rules on comp time accrual. That means some families have had to pay for extra viewing days at funeral homes while they wait for the weekend to pass.

"It's hard when you keep dragging out that anguish and pain," Tercero said.

Cemetery Director Martha Fierro said her department has been short-staffed for a while, and some cemetery employees have accrued 90 hours of comp time when they're supposed to have a maximum of 20 to 25 per year depending on their seniority. 

"We're way over," Fierro said. "So I had to do something."

County commissioners took up the issue Monday, deciding to approve comp-time stack-ups through September so Fierro can start scheduling weekend funerals again. They'll decide on paying off cemetery employee's accrued hours Sept. 22.

Greg Simmons opposed, saying the cemetery's 2008-'09 budget is the biggest in history.

"We're doing more funerals than we've ever done," he said. "We've reached our capacity."

Fierro said the oilfield's lure is making it hard for her to find part-time help, and she's been down to four full-time employees for a while. Sunset Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home General Manager Bill Vallie said his operation - the only privately run cemetery in town - does about the same number of burials as Rose Hill, but he has six full-time maintenance workers and two part-timers.

Income varies greatly between the county and the private cemetery. Rose Hill charges 31 percent less than Sunset for a burial - and an average of 58 percent less for a plot.

"We want to help citizens as much as possible, but we need to take care of our workers also," Fierro said.

Tercero told commissioners Monday it's their job to work out a compromise to allow Saturday burials no matter how bad the labor shortage is.

He said since Rose Hill is funded by taxpayer dollars and since no taxpayer knows when their family members are going to die, the service has to be available.

"They came up with money for their raises," Tercero said. "They can always make arrangements for it. Those county workers got a 3 percent raise, and I still don't think that's enough, but they can come up with the extra money to bury the people at the county cemetery." 

AT A GLANCE

>> The county's revenue from cemetery fees has increased 42.6 percent from 2003 to 2007. Cemetery Director Martha Fierro said a lot of that money has been used to acquire more land and maintenance equipment.

>> It costs $750 for a plot and $750 for a burial before 2 p.m. at Rose Hill. Sunset Memorial Gardens, Odessa's only privately run cemetery, charges $1,800 for an average plot and $1,095 for a burial.

>> If county commissioners approved paying off cemetery employees' comp time, it would cost about $3,100.