College Station city council is asked to "reinterpret" the cemetery ordinance to allow pet ashes in columbariums

This podcast contains comments from the June 12, 2025 College Station city council meeting.The lone speaker during the public comment portion of last Thursday's College Station city council meeting (June 12) asked that the city cemetery ordinance be re-interpreted.Lisa Burton wants to place in her mother's columbarium, the ashes of her late mother's cat.Burton says while the city ordinance says "cemeteries are set apart for the interment of human remains", she says the ordinance can be interpreted to say columbariums are not restricted to only the internment of human remains...that the phrase "set apart" does not mean "restricted to".Burton said friends told her to add the cat's ashes without notifying city officials, but Burton said "that's not the way I believe things should be done."She also told the council that "the city can not make me a promise beyond 100 percent that there are not animal/pet ashes already with their owners in any of the cemeteries here."Five and a half hours after Burton's comments, just before the council ended its public business at midnight, councilman David White asked for more information about the city cemetery ordinance with the possibility of discussing this at a future workshop.Click HERE to read and download the city of College Station ordinance regarding cemeteries, as taken from the city website on June 12, 2025.