The Saline City Council will soon spend $100,000 to purchase a 3.5-acre parcel near Oakwood Cemetery.

At a meeting Monday night, the council voted 4-2 (with one member absent) to purchase the land at 207 Monroe St.

Originally, the city planned to purchase the land for expansion of Oakwood Cemetery, but after researching the amount of available cemetery space in the vicinity, the City Council decided to add to its current mausoleum rather than expand the cemetery boundaries.

Council members Brian Marl and David Rhoads voted against the purchase in part because of the financial constraints facing the city.

But council member Dean Girbach called the $100,000 purchase price a good investment in the city’s future.

Mayor Gretchen Driskell said the property abuts both the city’s wastewater treatment plant, should an expansion be needed, and abuts People’s Park and could become part of a linear trail. And, should the economy improve, she said it could always be placed back on the market.

“We have uses for this property,” said council member Patrick Ivey, adding that the council had been deliberating the purchase for the last two years.

Glenn Law said he’d support the purchase with “some reservations. I don’t want this to become a consistent thing for the city. There’s a whole bunch of property out there (for sale.)”

Driskell said the city has $2 million in undesignated fund balance, and the purchase was in the budget.

Driskell, Ivey, Girbach and Law voted in favor of the purchase. Linda TerHaar was absent.

The council also approved the purchase of 278 urn spaces called niches, and six marble fronts from Eickhof Columbaria of Crookston, Minn., at a cost of about $48,000 for Oakwood Cemetery.

The niches are 11 inches by 12 inches, and the marble fronts are mined in Georgia and made of white Cherokee marble with a polished finish. They can hold two 6-inch by 10-inch high vase style urns, according to information provided by Eickhof Columbaria. Larry Oakes, a company representative from Pittsfield Township, said that the trend in funerals is toward cremation.

The city has restored the mausoleum during the last eight years, and it’s expected that the niches will be installed this year as part of the city’s expansion plan and paid for through the cemetery's perpetual care fund that has about $911,000 in it.

Lisa Allmendinger is a reporter with AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lisaallmendinger@annarbor.com. For more Saline stories, visit our Saline page.