The Adairville city council was hoping to have a new cemetery ordinance in place for 2012, but the first reading of the new law was not held at last week’s regular council meeting.

City clerk Sharon Head said that city attorney James Milam had made a few notes about the new ordinance, but the cemetery committee had not made any changes.

The council wanted to wait until they heard from the cemetery committee before holding a first reading of the new ordinance.

Becky Tinch, who serves as the city council’s representative on the cemetery committee, was absent from last week’s meeting.

Many of the changes to the cemetery ordinance were under the section for foundations and markers.

Under the proposed changes, one important difference will be that all monuments must be built upon a concrete foundation.

This was not spelled out in the cemetery laws before and some memorial stones were not properly installed and are now leaning over and unsafe.

Also new is a regulation regarding mementos that are placed on the ground.

The new portion of the ordinance about this states: “As a general rule, any items placed on the ground, ground mounted, or fall to the ground are not acceptable because they hinder ground maintenance and are subject to being permanently removed.”

There are two exceptions to this, however.

New graves will be allowed to have ground mounted arrangements for up to two week after burial and shepherd hooks are allowed as long as they are anchored into the ground flush with the monument’s side, front or back.

There are also new guidelines which spell out exactly what happens when a monument becomes a safety hazard.