At the Feb. 18 Hambden Township Trustees meeting, members of Geauga County’s Automatic Data Processing board unveiled a new cemetery database designed to streamline administrative tasks and provide a research tool for residents.
At the Feb. 18 Hambden Township Trustees meeting, members of Geauga County’s Automatic Data Processing board unveiled a new cemetery database designed to streamline administrative tasks and provide a research tool for residents.
ADP Deputy Chief Administrator Frank Antenucci, county Auditor Chuck Walder and Geographic Information Systems Solutions Architect Sarah Perry introduced the database — the first of its kind in the county — and explained its functions.
Antenucci described the project as a collaboration between township trustees and the ADP department.
“I forget who said it, initially, maybe it was Newbury, who said, ‘Hey do you have any ability to create some kind of application for cemeteries? It’s just kind of a mess out there,’” Antenucci said. “So, I naturally just went to Sarah (Perry) and the GIS team. They started talking about it back and forth. We talked with Newbury, then it made it into one of the papers and I think (Hambden Township Trustee Dave Johnson) texted me that night and said, ‘We’re really interested.’ I told Dave, ‘You’re at the top of the heap at that point,’ so we set a course to work with Hambden on the cemetery application.”
The database was completed in about 50 days, a timeline made possible by the township’s organized cemetery records, Antenucci said.
“What we wanted to do is come out here and roll it out, answer any questions for the trustees so you can see it as a full board, instead of just sending it out to the staff and saying, ‘Have at it,’” he said. “We prefer to not only do this thing out front (the presentation) but also at the back end of it, (so) that we provide the township with what they’re looking for.”
He added, “This is the first time in Geauga County history that a township cemetery application has been created, homegrown here. You guys will be the first ones to have a custom-built mapped infrastructure application for your cemeteries.”
The database features aerial maps of township cemeteries with plot information such as pricing and availability. Antenucci emphasized the application was designed to meet the needs of government officials and residents.
“The important thing is that it can become inherently customizable for the township, but at the same time, it’s still not a uniquely made product that then nobody can maintain, it’s still very user-friendly,” he said.
Antenucci credited Hambden trustees’ cooperation and enthusiasm for helping bring the project to completion.
“We certainly appreciate the partnership. We thought that Hambden was a really good board to work with,” he said. “You’re very consistent, reliable, copacetic, everybody gets along and that goes a long way when you’re trying to build something new.”
Walder outlined the administrative benefits of the system.
“There are some things I wanted to make sure you’re aware of that make care of cemeteries unique for townships,” Walder said. “Cemeteries are statutory. You have to maintain cemeteries by law. Cemeteries present an interesting problem. The fiscal responsibility of the record is on (Fiscal Officer Mike Roman’s) shoulders. By law, he has to maintain the record (of burial deeds). But, generally speaking, the trustees are responsible for the actual digging of the grave, the burial and the filing of that deed. So, therein lies the problem. We’ve got two effective branches of the same government that have duality of purpose.”
Centralizing information in a database could streamline operations and improve record keeping, Walder said.
“In the old days, there was a sheet of paper and a map (of cemeteries), and the map was kept in the fiscal office. They would write on it and that’s how it was done,” he explained. “The problem is that (the process) had no exposure to the residents. If a resident wanted to know if a plot was available, they had to come in, look at the map, take their pencil, erase somebody’s name, put their name on it. What we envision long term is, the ability to be very interactive with the residents by taking a lot of the legwork out of it, of people having to schedule to come in and do those kinds of things. You can post things as detailed as the cost of each plot, which plots are open and available, where are military plots versus non-military.”
He added, “We wanted to solve both the fiscal challenge, as well as the trustee challenge of actually getting the job done with the least amount of effort, time and cost.”
Perry then demonstrated the database’s functions, showing how township cemetery records were digitized.
“Everything you have in terms of cemetery information is now digital and ready to look at online,” she said. “It gives the residents the ability to explore any cemeteries in Hambden.”
She demonstrated features that allow users to view aerial maps, topographical overlays and plot information such as numbers and availability.
“You can see where the trees are, so if someone is looking to be buried somewhere, they can get a pretty good idea of what that area looks like, its features,” she said.
The database also allows families to research gravesites and memorialize loved ones, Perry explained.
“Name, date of death, age, whatever information the township had is there, as complete as the team could make it, but the township can update it,” Perry said. “This is some pretty good functionality for the residents.”
Users can submit information about individuals buried in township cemeteries, which the township can review and approve for inclusion, she said.
“If you were looking for someone in your family or someone you loved, you can actually create a memorial for them,” she said. “There’s a survey you can complete, including what you would like to share about them, that gets sent to the township, they approve it and a memorial can be attached to that plot, so in the future, any other residents or any other person interested in cemeteries can find that information (through the database).”
Perry said she hopes the project expands in the future.
“What I envision potentially for the future, we could have a cemetery page for Geauga County and all the links to all the townships could be within the page and all look the same, and so anyone looking for a cemetery in Geauga County could potentially search the entire Geauga County database,” Perry said.
Johnson praised the project’s outcome.
“This turned out way better than I thought,” he said.
He said the township will promote the database through newsletters and social media.
Walder explained that while the database is live, ADP wanted to show it to the Hambden trustees first before publicizing it further.
In a follow-up conversation, Antenucci said public access to the database would be available within 30 days.
Perry emphasized the long-term benefits of the system.
“I think the township will use it to manage their data in a much more efficient way,” she said. “Going from paper maps that are often a couple hundred years old, the pencils rubbed out and replaced, the edges are torn and worn. Old maps are awesome, but functionally, they can get damaged and they can get lost. Having this all in a database online where it can be stored forever and be easily accessed on a map (will help townships). If you have 1,000 plots, you can’t search that. With the database, you can search for names. It’s so much more efficient.”
