John Hornok, a Pearl Harbor survivor and resident of Draper, had died on Aug. 3, a Sunday. They had to fly in family members from across the country for the funeral - and they had to do it by Thursday.
With the state's new 10-hour, four-day workweek, the Utah Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Riverton was closed on Fridays for burials.
"It kind of struck us as absurd that we had to plan around a four-day week," Moyer, a resident of Kansas, said. "That became the driving force of when we could have the funeral."
Luckily, Hornok's six children, 24 of the 27 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren were able to get to Utah by Thursday, Aug. 7.
"Had my father died even one day later, I doubt everyone would have been able to get everyone together by Thursday, and then we would have had to push back the funeral until Monday," Moyer said. "There needs to be more flexibility."
And there will be, promises Terry Schow.
The Executive Director of the Utah Department of Veterans Affairs is informing his staff that families can bury their loved ones on Fridays if necessary.
"We'll make the accommodations for extraordinary circumstances," Schow said. "We want to be accessible to the public during their times of sorrow."
Schow suggests families contact the cemetery sextant to let him know services will be needed on a Friday.
The cemetery is generally closed as part of the four-day week in an attempt to save money on the heating and electricity for buildings now closed an extra day a week.
"I've been advocating to folks that we need flexibility," Schow said. "With determinations like [the four-day week] people look at it as black and white, but we need shades of gray for people."
Lisa Roskelley, spokeswoman for Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., agrees.
"This was the first time the issue had arisen," Roskelley said. "We want to make sure we're serving the public and providing the flexibility for those services."
That's good news for Moyer, who raised the issue in a letter to the editor.
"It needed to be brought to light."
