Coye told the newspaper that they were informed by Colwin Flowers, City Administrator of the City Council, and Marva Gardner, Revenue Manager, that effective April 1, the new fees would be set in place, and that the lease would last for only ten years, after which the grave space would revert to the City Council for resale.

There were signs in the Council?s office to that effect, said Coye.

In addition to the new fees, Coye said that the Belize City Council has made some kind of arrangement with the Social Security Board of Belize, adding an option on the death form, which is filled out when requesting benefits, so that the public could sign and have Homeland Memorial, a private burial ground located at Mile 8, take care of all funeral arrangements.

Coye said that Homeland Memorial is owned by three persons with ties to a Cabinet minister. He said that the company gets their coffins from the Hattieville Prison, taking away business from the undertakers, leaving them with nothing to do. He said that he heard the men on a talk show saying that if the person that requests their services don?t like the box, then they can take it to one of the undertakers to have it fixed to their desire.

?I will not assist anyone in fixing up something that I can make,? said the undertaker.

The mayor, who was a guest this morning on the KREM WUB show, hosted by Mose Hyde and Anne Wade, denied the allegations about the new fees and the new plans for burial spaces, saying that it was not true.

Amandala visited the City Council today and noticed two Bristol boards posted up. The signs read, ?New prices effective April 1.? Under the signs were several other notices for price differences, along with the new price for grave space. It could clearly be seen that the word, ?LEASE,? was scratched over with a black marker, and above it was the writing, ?Ground – $75, adult – $150,? and below it, ?TOMB – $75, child – $75.?

There was also a price quoted for the re-opening of grave spaces.

The undertakers said that they were not in agreement with the new prices, as it would only ?hurt the poor people?s pocket.? They said that the ground space used to be $30 for a child, and that it is now $75, while the price for an adult space doubled from $75 to $150.

?A child?s casket will now cost less than her grave space. Moreover, it [the space] is only being leased, and not sold. Before, these used to be the prices to buy a grave space; now, it?s only to lease it,? said Leiva.

In investigating the story, Amandala went to the City Council and requested to buy a grave space. The man at the front desk informed us of the price, saying that the spaces were no longer sold, but just leased, confirming the allegations.

When we requested a copy of the new prices, effective April 1, we were first referred to Gardner, who told us that she did not have any authority to release any information to us without Mayor David Fonseca?s consent, sending us upstairs to make an appointment.

We were greeted by a security guard, who we asked if we could see the mayor?s secretary. She asked us to wait and went into the secretary?s office. She returned to tell us that the secretary said that he was not there and that he had a very tight schedule for the day.

We then asked the security guard if we could at least speak with the secretary, to tell her what we wanted. She again went into the office and returned to say that the secretary also did not have any authority to release that information. We were not invited into the office.

Amandala then called back and requested to speak with the mayor, finally getting through to him.

Mayor Fonseca maintains what he said this morning on the WUB, saying that he is not aware of any of these changes. He said that as far as he knows, the selling of the grave spaces has not changed.

He is aware of new prices, said the Mayor, but he is not aware of any leasing of grave space.

Incidentally, the City Council issued an advertisement in the local printed media, informing the public that it intends to begin the ?tombing? of graves, at a price of $800, which, it said, ?only applies to grave spots purchased prior to April 1, 2005.

Coye said that he was not aware of this until he saw it in The Belize Times today. He said that this should show that if you did not purchase the space before April 1, then you could not tomb it.

Late this evening, we spoke again with the Mayor, who reiterated his stand ? there are no plans, as far as he knew, to lease grave space.

Mayor Fonseca said that the idea was floated in February of this year, but it came to nothing, and consequently, grave spaces are still sold, not leased.

We repeated our observation that despite what the Mayor said, our reporter said she saw the signs in the Council?s main office.

According to the Mayor, however, after our reporter spoke with him earlier this evening, he checked the main office downstairs, but saw no such signs.