• Old wounds were reopened as the council approved a request by Rowland Hall-St. Mark's School for an extension to meet the conditions of council action that allowed the private school to move forward with plans to purchase land from Mount Olivet Cemetery.

Council members voted by the same 5-2 count, with Nancy Saxton and Soren Simonsen in opposition, as they did in April 2006 to change zoning on 13 acres of cemetery land.

The council's action 18 months ago removed one hurdle the financially strapped cemetery faced in trying to sell the land to Rowland Hall-St. Mark's. That approval required that certain conditions be met within two years. At the request of Rowland Hall-St. Mark's and Mount Olivet officials, the deadline was pushed back until Dec. 31, 2010.

When Congress created Mount Olivet, it included a provision in the land contracts that the property would revert back to the federal government if it were ever used for anything other than a cemetery. The school and cemetery have not yet received congressional approval to complete the land deal.

Thirteen people spoke at a public hearing on the extension, with nine of them urging the council to deny the extension.

Robert Steiner, a member of the school's board of trustees, said the school has been working diligently toward getting that approval and that it's likely to come before the extended deadline.

The school plans to use the 13 acres for a future expansion that would bring its middle- and upper-school campuses to contiguous sites.

• By a 5-2 vote, the council amended its budget for the upcoming fiscal year to include a little more than $200,000 for six new full-time employees in the city prosecutor's office and another $15,000 for attorney salary increases for the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association.

The additional funds will allow the prosecutor's office to hire two new attorneys, one paralegal and three office clerks to help deal with a heavy workload.

The Salt Lake Legal Defender Association will increase base salaries for attorneys from $45,000-$47,0000 annually to $51,000, making them comparable with salaries offered by the city prosecutor's office.

Outgoing council members Saxton and Dave Buhler voted against the budget amendment.

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E-mail: jpage@desnews.com