PEORIA (Heart of Illinois ABC) – The Peoria Park District Board is backing an agreement with two other local governments to run historic Springdale Cemetery for at least the next decade.

Trustees voted unanimously Tuesday night in favor of the intergovernmental agreement in which the city retains ownership of the property and would control five of the nine seats on the cemetery’s management authority board.

The agreement also calls for the city to sell 14 acres of the cemetery to the park district, placing that section under a “permanent environmental stewardship” of tall prairie grasses known as the “savanna.”

The park district pledges to contribute $40,000 annually, while Peoria County government would pay $102,000 at the start and boost its contribution to $120,000 in the final year of the agreement.

Local governments assumed control of the cemetery in the early 2000s after private owners neglected the property and mismanaged its finances.

The Peoria City Council approved the new agreement Tuesday night. The county board is slated to vote on the deal Thursday night.

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