Photo and Article by Mary Alice Murphy
Bayard, up until Tuesday, May 26, was the only community in Grant County that did not have a cemetery.
On Tuesday, a ribbon-cutting officially opened the Bayard Cemetery, located about a mile east of the city limits. The overall size of the cemetery is 40 acres. The first phase developed 11 acres, which holds 800 plots and 96 areas for cremains. A committal shelter will shield mourners from the sun, rain or snow.
Mayor Charles Kelly said: "Two or three decades ago, Bayard citizens asked the Bayard city council to create a cemetery. Once the location was secured, funds had to be secured. That's when then-state Rep. Rodolopho "Rudy" Martinez and state Sen. Howie Morales in the legislature and obtained $400,000... I dedicate this hallowed ground as a final resting place for the remains of our deceased loved ones and may God bless it and keep it from harm, lawlessness and destruction."
He said individuals may begin to make reservations for rights of internment on June 1.
Morales said the project faced challenges, but "now the residents will have the opportunity to go 'home' in their own community. This place is where I want to be when my time comes to go 'home.'"
Bayard Clerk/Treasurer Kristina Ortiz said reservations for plots would cost $450 per plot, and at the time of interment, $400 for opening and closing the grave. The cemetery will be perpetual care. "We plan to have landscaping with grass and trees."
Morales asked how having no capital outlay this past session had impacted the cemetery project. Ortiz said the requested funding would have gone to fencing and landscaping. The next phase will be on the other side of the road from the first phase.
Owner of Terrazas Funeral Chapels LuÃs Terrazas said the funeral home would provide the chairs for the committal shelter and would bring equipment to lower the casket into the grave.
To a question, Ortiz said there would be no standing headstones, but only ones flat to the ground.
Kelly also noted that steel or fiberglass vaults would be required for all graves.
"The city will take care of maintenance of the cemetery," he said.
Ortiz said before the city can get irrigation to the site, although the conduit was in place, Bayard is waiting to receive discharge permits to use treated wastewater. "We have two applications-one for the cemetery and one for the schools."
City Councilor and Mayor Pro Tem Chon Fierro said the next phase would include benches for those visiting the cemetery.