City questioned about cemetery shrubs

MARENGO — A former Marengo resident told the Marengo City Council in April that he’d pay for shrubs to replace several that were removed from Marengo Cemetery east of town on Highway 6.

Lynn Schmidt, now living in Crown Point, Indiana, grew up in Marengo, and his parents and grandparents are buried in the cemetery, as he will be, he said.

The shrubs in question had been in the cemetery for 45 years, Schmidt told the city council during public comments Aug. 23. Schmidt said he asked a member of the cemetery board why they’d been taken out, but the cemetery board wasn’t aware of their removal.

Schmidt said he then asked the city administrator, Karla Marck, about it. Marck thought someone had complained because a car had been scratched by the shrubs, but she said during the council meeting that she had been mistaken about that. The shrubs weren’t involved in the car incident but were removed because they were growing into the gravestones, she said.

Schmidt offered to pay for planting new shrubs at the cemetery.

The council couldn’t discuss the issue because it wasn’t an agenda item, but Mayor Adam Rabe said the city would put the issue on an agenda so the council could consider it.