Madison County pays almost $10,000 to remove trees, stumps from Maryville’s Krome Cemetery

By Randy Pierce • Considered as a matter of public safety, Madison County contracted for the removal of 28 pine trees and stumps plus associated debris from Krome Cemetery in Maryville, the work provided by Scott’s Tree and Outdoor Services of Troy. 

As approved by the county board central services committee last month, this expense, considered an emergency repair, totaled $9,750. According to the county’s director of facilities, Mike Bold, in response to a question from the committee chairman, Frank Dickerson of Worden, the procurement procedure in effect enabled this one-time agreement with Scott’s, rather than going through the process of seeking bids from qualified providers.

That policy, according to Bold, states that in matters related to immediate concern for the well-being of the public, the bid process does not have to be followed in the interest of expediency. 

“I took a trip to the cemetery,” Bold explained, “and realized this needed to be done sooner than later and so I just pulled the string and got it done.”

Bold did not respond to an e-mail inquiry from a reporter regarding the specific circumstances

that factored into the determination of an emergency situation at this cemetery.

This small family cemetery in the Stonebridge Village subdivision, and not far from that development’s golf course, was originally located on what was defined as Keebler Road and now is accessible from Old Keebler Road.

There is a large headstone in the center of the cemetery, named after the Krome family, for the graves of a married couple named Charles William, who died in 1876, and Anna C., who died in 1885, along with a daughter, named Charlotte, who passed away the same year as her father, according to online details about the location, each of those three with their own grave.

There are two headstones with illegible messages on them at the site and all of the transcriptions are in German.

The family buried there has a place in the community’s history in that Charles and Anna had a daughter named Mary, not buried in this cemetery, after whom the town was named when it incorporated in 1902.