Huckleberries Past: A bargain at Forest Cemetery

And here’s another item from one of my earliest Kootenai Grapevine/Huckleberries columns — from Feb. 17, 1985:

“Doug Eastwood got quite a bit of mileage from his comment a couple of weeks ago that people shop around for cemeteries like they do for groceries. His statement to me during an interview about new regulations at Forest Cemetery was picked up by USA Today, which emphasized the third-off sale of plots in graveyard’s Kinzer addition. Eastwood, city parks and cemetery director, said he has had five or six inquiries about Kinzer since the city council dropped plot prices from $500 to $350 but still no takers. The cemetery board is considering advertising its bargain.”

Factoid: One of the big controversies in Coeur d’Alene in 1985 was the push by Mayor Jim Fromm’s administration to privatize Forest Cemetery. The old-timers fought that idea. It was one of the issues that Ray Stone successfully ran on to win the 1985 mayor’s race.