City Manager Mike Wildgen is waiting like everyone else to learn the fate of the troubled Memorial Park Cemetery.

Wildgen on Friday said that he still was uncertain whether the cemetery would become the permanent responsibility of the city after a Douglas County District Court judge in late May temporarily removed the cemetery from the control of Houston-based Mike Graham & Associates and ordered the city to care for it.

“We’re assuming that we’re going to have some responsibility out there for quite some time,” Wildgen said.

But Wildgen said he would like to receive some official word about the property, which had been the subject of many complaints related to maintenance and the timely installation of tombstones.

Wildgen said he believed Mike Graham & Associates had missed a court-ordered deadline to protest the court’s temporary order. But Wildgen said he wasn’t sure where that left the case. The Kansas Attorney General’s Office filed the lawsuit that led to the cemetery, 1517 E. 15th St., being placed in the city’s care. Jan Lunsford, a spokesman with the attorney general’s office, said Friday that he did not have any new information to report on the case. He said he did not know whether a court-ordered deadline had been missed. A state attorney overseeing the case wasn’t available for comment Friday.

An unidentified woman at Mike Graham & Associates office also refused to comment about the status of the cemetery.

Wildgen said the legal limbo was creating some problems. He said the city would not undertake any significant improvements to the property – such as building or road repairs – until the property was clearly placed in the hands of the city.

“It really is a ‘maintain the grass and pick up the trash’ type of operation out there right now,” Wildgen said. “We know there’s more work that needs to be done.”

The lack of a final ruling also means the city is unable to sell cemetery plots to people because the city doesn’t have the ability to offer a clear title to the land. The city is able to accommodate burials for people who have already purchased a lot at the cemetery.

Wildgen is recommending that city commissioners include $75,000 in the 2006 budget to maintain the cemetery. The city has kept two former employees of the cemetery on staff to help city crews maintain the property.

City commissioners have been supportive of adding money to the budget, which will be finalized in early August.

Wildgen said he was holding out hope that some money held in trust by the cemetery company could be transferred to the city to help fund maintenance activities. He said state officials had not disclosed how much money was in any trust fund.