Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

Howell City Council this week rejected a family's appeal to place a concrete headstone at a city cemetery. That's according to Megan Haas Rebman, who requested a variance for the memorial honoring her parents.

"They couldn't get Royal Stone or the American Concrete Institute to give them, in writing, how long this monument, this headstone would last," Rebman told WHMI News.

"They could have given me this information prior to, and I could have worked on this before the meeting. Before wasting even more time."

WHMI first reported on the family's plight back in May (linked below), after city staff denied the installation of a headstone for her parents, Jacqueline and Louis Haas.

"I'm talking to a city official, a city employee, the person who is in charge of the cemetery," said Rebman. "And then Royal Stone, being a company that has made other headstones all over the state, nobody mentioned material to me. I've never done this before. And I was insulted that it was insinuated that I was trying to somehow side step the rules."

Two months ago, Howell's mayor stated current rules for headstone materials specifically state headstones can only be made out of durable granite or bronze and there is not a lot of wiggle room for other materials.

Rebman says she will continue to fight for her parents' memorial.

"The reason why Royal Stone couldn't tell them this will last 100 or 200 years, is because Royal Stone has only been in the business 26 years. But this is not a product that is new," she added.

"Now I have to find an engineer who will somehow help us, and give us something to give the City of Howell that is satisfactory for them."

City Manager Kristi Troy did no respond to an email seeking comment.