Monroe cemeteries add software for easier data searching
Apr. 27—MONROE — Locating some of Monroe's oldest residents and managing the city's two cemeteries will be easier and more secure thanks to a contract with a software company.
City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a $39,330 contract with webCemeteries for the Department of Public Works. Besides the initial cost, the city will pay $5,000 a year for the maintenance service, said Gary Morton, public works director.
The city owns and operates two cemeteries: North Monroe Cemetery and Mound Cemetery. The city sell the plots and city employees open and close the graves, while funeral homes provide the vaults and tents and chairs, if needed, Morton said.
He expects the plots at North Monroe Cemetery to be sold out within five years and there are about 2,000 plots available at Mound Cemetery.
The software will manage the data for the city and allow those who visit the cemetery to search on an app for relatives and view available plot locations, according to Morton.
The city's software is 12 years old and does not meet the ever-demanding needs of the cemeteries as the city continues to see an upward trend in burials since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, according to a staff report.
The current software is hosted on a desktop computer in the Public Works administrative offices. There's "a high risk" the city could lose all of the data on this computer, according to the city. The new software will be hosted in the cloud on an Amazon server that is "very secure," the city said.
None of the information on the server will be shared with outside companies, Morton said. He added that if the company goes out of business, the city can retrieve all the information.
