Opelika’s Cemetery Division gets in Granite Vases and holders for Gravesites

June 29, 2010

If you happened to drive by one of Opelika’s cemeteries over the Memorial Day weekend, you undoubtedly saw the breathtaking view of the “sea of American Flags” across the cemetery grounds. More than 1,200 flags were placed there by the City of Opelika to honor all identified Veterans buried in City run cemeteries. “We hope we were able to identify every Veteran,” states Mike Hilyer, Director of Public Works / ESG Team, “but if we missed someone’s relative, it’s not too late to let us know about it and we’ll place a flag on their gravesite for the 4^th of July weekend."

The City of Opelika will put flags out on Veterans’ graves each Memorial Day, 4^th of July and Veterans Day, with the tradition having started this past Memorial Day weekend. The flags will remain on the graves for three days for each holiday season. The flags are placed there courtesy of ESG Operations and no fees are assessed to any veteran’s family to have a flag placed on their gravesite.

The City has also ordered granite vases which can be permanently placed at gravesites for those family members who are interested in purchasing those. Those will go on sale to the public beginning on Tuesday, July 6^th and are being sold to the public for exactly what the city paid for each unit.

There are two different types of granite vases and a granite pot holder for sale:

A smaller vase, finished on two sides, which sells for $28.00
A larger vase, which is round and finished all the way around, which sells for 68.00
A Granite flower pot holder, which is $28.00

Citizens will also need to purchase a granite base unit for these vases to sit on, if the vase will not – or cannot – be placed directly on the headstone or footstone. The cost for granite bases are $7.00 each. Installation of these purchases will be handled by the city’s cemetery staff at no cost to families.

For more information on any of these cemetery items, or to let the cemetery staff know about a veteran’s grave which we didn’t mark, please call the offices at 705-5445; you can also go by the cemetery offices, located in Garden Hills Cemetery at 1218 Frederick Road. Cemetery facility offices are open between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.