A group of individuals recently held a series of meetings at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Coplay to reorganize the Coplay Cemetery Association (CCA).

The CCA was founded in 1875 and manages the operations of Coplay Cemetery, located at Ninth and Oak streets.

Coplay Cemetery is not affiliated with any church or religious entity.

Sandy Tapler is the new president; Bill Leiner Jr. is the vice president; Gail Yudt is secretary; and Linda Saeger accepted the treasurer’s position. None of the office elections were contested. Karl Korsak accepted the CCA manager position, and Rollie Yudt accepted the caretaker role. Rounding out the board of directors are Peggy Peters, Nancy Betz, Pat Schadt, Ruthann Parker, Louise Hash, Sue Rape and Carla Santee.

The reorganization plans include developing a new set of bylaws, a clearer organized chart of the plots, improving the cemetery’s maintenance and appearance, and simplifying the financial systems, particularly caretaker fees, making them less ambiguous. An audit of the books is planned for the near future. The plan is to have a rebirth of the cemetery.

Discussions took place about possibly removing the locust trees at the cemetery’s southeast corner. There also was a review of the cemetery plot pricing. Individual burial site purchase costs currently are $300 in the old part of the cemetery and $500 in the new part of the cemetery. The thought is to perhaps have only one price. A plot is a 16-foot-by-16-foot space that includes eight individual burial sites.

More meetings are scheduled to include the audit committee and bylaws committee.