Athens City Council gathers for its meeting in City Hall Monday, June 10.

The Athens City Council pushed back its vote on an ordinance that would have amended various sections of the city code concerning cemeteries inside of the city limits.

District 2 Councilman Harold Wales raised concerns about the proposed ordinance in the Council’s regular meeting on Monday, June 10, at City Hall.

Wales stated after the meeting that he simply wanted more time to go through the large document before rushing to vote on something that deals with such a sensitive topic.

“The issue is it is so thick, we just didn’t have time to study it,” Wales told The News Courier. “I want them to go through and explain each reason behind why they want to change it, because I want to know that what we are doing is making things better for the public.”

When Wales brought his issues forward at the meeting in City Hall he was met with a different perspective from Council President Dana Henry, who did not fully agree with his sentiments.

“I like what they have presented,” Henry said. “The face of funerals have changed. The addition of the columbarium is something that is really needed, because there is a lot of unused space that we can make better use of in our current cemeteries.”

Henry explained that the costly price of current burials are cause for concern and giving more options to Athens City residents is ultimately for the better.

“Having multiple cremains in one lot makes burials more affordable,” Henry said. “Burying the dead is an expensive proposition. It is in our best interest to make options more affordable, more economically friendly and more environmentally friendly.”

According to Mayor Ronnie Marks, who was one of the biggest advocates for the ordinance in Monday evening’s meeting, the proposed revisions to the city code has been under way for some time now.

“We have been working on the amendments for the cemetery for quite a while, because we know how limited we are in cemetery space,” Marks said. “We started looking at the whole ordinance, and we know how much things have changed for traditional burials, so we wanted to come up with ways that really make sense and give people better options.”

During the meeting Wales stated that he wanted to have a sit down with Marks and Shane Black, city attorney, to go through all of the revisions before he casts his vote on the matter at a later date.

The council chose to introduce the proposed ordinance, but due to the raised concerns will not vote on the matter until possibly their next meeting.

“We will meet and whatever the issues are we will look into them,” Marks said. “I’m hopeful it will pass, but we are not looking at this as a disadvantage, we are looking at it as an important option for our community.”