Plans to expand the Bērzkrogs Cemetery
In order to expand the Bērzkrogs Cemetery in Jaunsvirlauka Parish, at its meeting in December last year the Jelgava County Council reviewed and approved a draft decision on auctioning the felling rights for trees on the Bērzkrogs Cemetery property. Trees will be felled and stumps removed in the central part of the property, covering approximately 1.06 hectares. As Dace Gražule, the municipality’s environmental protection specialist, points out, although tree felling and stump removal are planned for this year, it will most likely take considerably longer to fully improve the cemetery.
The company responsible for cemetery management in Jelgava County Municipality is SIA «Jelgavas novada KU». According to the company’s head, Antra Alksne, the Bērzkrogs Cemetery in Jaunsvirlauka Parish is quite old—the available information indicates that the first burials there took place as early as 1906. At present, 1,242 people are buried in the cemetery.
«Looking at the broader picture, there is no shortage of space in the cemeteries of Jelgava County, but there are individual cemeteries where burials can no longer be carried out or will soon have to be discontinued. To provide new burial places, we have been implementing a cemetery expansion plan in cooperation with the municipality for several years. This year, we plan to begin expanding the Bērzkrogs Cemetery. At present, burial plots occupy 1.15 hectares, while the number of available burial places has declined sharply in recent years. The Bērzkrogs Cemetery can currently be considered partially closed, since free places are available only in family or kinship burial plots. The adjacent area designated for felling, covering 1.06 hectares, is municipal property, and this year it is planned to clear the area of large trees and shrubs and remove the stumps. This will be followed by work to level the ground and improve the cemetery,» explains A. Alksne.
The municipality is not currently specifying the exact timing or cost of the cemetery expansion, as the necessary documentation is still being prepared. It is known that an auction for tree felling will be announced in the near future. After that, work will begin on designing the cemetery area and expanding the cemetery.
Alongside the existing plans, discussions are also currently under way regarding the improvement of the old part of the cemetery. «The old part of the cemetery is located at the beginning of the cemetery, on a hill. The municipality has no information about when the last burials took place in this section, but the existing situation indicates that it was quite some time ago. This cemetery area covers 0.5 hectares. As the cemetery is expanded, this part may also be improved. However, for this plan to be implemented and for additional burials to be carried out in the old part of the cemetery, it would first be necessary to conduct a study from a cultural and historical perspective,» adds the environmental protection specialist of Jelgava County Municipality.
It should be noted that Jelgava County’s cemetery expansion plan was drawn up when the municipality entrusted cemetery management to SIA «Jelgavas novada KU», namely in 2015.
«In preparation for taking over cemetery management, we surveyed all the cemeteries located within the county together with specialists from the municipality’s Property Administration. According to the current list of cemeteries, there are 52 of them. We did this to establish in practice what the county’s cemeteries are like and whether they correspond to their status—whether they are closed, partially closed or open. Based on the information obtained, we gradually began developing a plan for expanding several cemeteries. For example, last year we began work on expanding the Skuji Cemetery in Līvbērze Parish—as at the Bērzkrogs Cemetery, trees will be felled; at the Skuji Cemetery, trees were felled and stumps removed last year. This year, the intention is to continue the work by adding and levelling soil in the area. It should be noted that improving the cemetery will also include clearing the adjacent ditches and putting the drainage system in order. Similarly, work to improve the cemetery with the aim of expanding it began last year at the Svēte Cemetery,» explains A. Alksne.
