By Jackie Gorski
Times-Union

WARSAW — A possible historical tour at the cemetery was a topic of discussion at the Oakwood Cemetery Board of Regents Thursday, Sept. 14.

Board President Ken Locke said he did talk briefly with Greg Steffe with the Kosciusko County Historical Society and Locke said Steffe showed interest in the tour.

Board member Dave Baumgartner said he knows some of “the people in the community theater and we need those actors and actresses.”

Sexton Hal Heagy said a lady has been doing a lot of research about various things and she brought a zip drive to the cemetery. Heagy said he has a lot of information, including 15 books. Heagy said he is starting to compile information.
Heagy also said the hardest thing about the tour is figuring out “who we’re doing” on the tour. Heagy said he has a list of people that have been portrayed in past tours and it’s not quite 20 people. Locke said he doesn’t think they want to do more than that because that would be a long night as it was.

Heagy said maybe the board can compile a list of which people buried at the cemetery that people want to portray during the tour and then they can get the historical society involved. Heagy said there are a lot of people that worked in making the city. Locke said there certainly are a lot of stories out there.

Baumgartner said the tour has a lot of potential and they could make it an actual event and get food trucks involved “and we have a year to plan it.”

Locke said if Baumgartner could get hold of the theater people, that would be great. Locke said he’d also talk to Terry White to see how White can possibly help.

In other business, the board heard:

• New gutters on the storage building and chapel are done.
• Cemetery staff are power washing some monuments and mausoleums.
• Cemetery staff is preparing for fall clean up and maintenance.
• $8,000 was transferred from the contractual repairs and maintenance account to the repair and maintenance supplies account to cover for $5,000 in repairs to the cemetery’s tool cat after its wheel bearings went out and $3,000 in upfront costs since the city of Warsaw is going to a citywide copier company.
• The board will see an updated 2024 budget next month after new insurance costs came in and the budget had to be adjusted due to that.