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Cemetery Land Deal Put Off

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE The Tampa Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 29, 2008

DADE CITY - The city's cemetery expansion plans have been put on hold.

Tuesday night, the city commission decided to table consideration of a proposal to trade a surplus street paver, backhoe and land to expand the 130-year-old burial ground. The trade would have covered only $38,645 of the $247,800 purchase price for the 7-acre parcel that Dade City wants to buy from contractor and property owner Bob Larkin.

Under the proposal, originally brokered by former City Manager Harold Sample, the city would have to cover the remainder of the price over 10 years at 5 percent interest. But with a tight budget season looming, commissioners said they did not want to commit to spending money on expansion plans until they begin crunching the numbers.

"I'd like to see this as a separate budget item," Commissioner Curtis Beebe said.

Officials said they are quickly running out of space in the historic Dade City Cemetery and that if the city wants to retain ownership of the graveyard, more land will be needed.

For more than a century, the final resting place for many of the county's pioneer families and war veterans has been maintained by the city and expanded with land purchases. The Larkin family owns two parcels abutting the northern edge of the cemetery, across from Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and the U.S. 98 Bypass.

For its part, the city has offered to throw in about 3 1/2 acres of land at a combined value of about $13,600, and an out-of-use street paver and backhoe valued at $25,000 combined. To date, the city has not identified funding sources for the remainder of the cost.

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (727) 815-1082 or cwade@tampatrib.com.

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