Every day, thousands of vehicles roll past the Winchester Cemetery with barely a second thought about the property.

For 165 years, the cemetery has been the final resting place for about 20,000 people, including a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.

Running and maintaining the cemetery is a full-time job for a handful of people, including manager Zach Wills.

A Clark County native, Wills was heading into the agriculture industry when a confluence of events led to him becoming manager of the cemetery in 2010.

With 56 acres in the cemetery, Wills estimates there is enough room to last another century or so.

Just don’t tell him people are dying to get in.

Winchester Sun: How did start working at the cemetery?

Zach Wills: My mother Carolyn Wills, now Carolyn Pace, used to be manager until she was forced to retire early due to medical reasons. I was just graduating college at Eastern (Kentucky University) with an ag business degree. The transitions happened all at the same time — my graduation, her being forced to retire. I just stepped in and took over, since I’d already been working here and knew the business already.

WS: Is this a family business for you?

ZW: No, sir. She was manager in 2004 until 2010. That’s when I took over. Other than that, there are no family ties.

WS: You mentioned an ag degree. Had you planned on farming?

ZW: I was heading in that direction. I had no firmed-up plans, but I was going in that direction.

WS: Most folks wouldn’t think twice about what it takes to run a cemetery. What’s involved?

ZW: I wish it was easy to explain. It’s a 56-acre cemetery, so obviously grounds maintenance is the No. 1 time consumer, between weed-eating, mowing and burials. We also sell monuments here. Basically, grounds maintenance, grave preparation, meeting with families, preparing for funerals, funeral arrangements and, of course, dealing with local funeral homes.

WS: Are the funerals fairly consistent or do they happen in cycles?

ZW: There’s ups and downs. Consistently, we’ll have four to five a week. There’s weeks where we have eight to 10 and weeks when we’ll have one to three. I think I can count on one hand the weeks we’ve gone without a funeral. I’d say it’s only been one or two weeks where we went the whole week without a funeral.

WS: The cemetery was founded in 1854. How much space do you have open?

ZW: It’s a 56-acre cemetery. There’s right under 20,000 people buried here at the moment. By my calculation, we’ve got about that much more room. Depending on how fast cremation continues to decline and rise, I figure this cemetery will have enough room for another 120 or 150 years. There’s more room than people think there is within the cemetery.

WS: This is right in the middle of town. Is the cemetery landlocked?

ZW: We are landlocked at this point. We’ve expanded as far as we can go.

WS: There are some pretty big monuments in here.

ZW: The largest one in the cemetery is the Mitchell family. It’s an obelisk-style monument over on the northwest side of the cemetery. It’s about 60 to 70 feet tall. I’ve not been able to measure it. Then the second-tallest is the Witherspoon family monument. It’s the same style, but I would say its 40 to 50 feet tall.

WS: Do you know the story behind the families?

ZW: I’m not that familiar with either one, but I have heard the Mitchell family was somehow tied in with the Coca-Cola family. That may explain a lot about the size of the monument.

WS: People don’t build things like that anymore.

ZW: I can’t imagine what that cost in those today. I know what it would cost today and it would be outstanding. It would be outrageous.

WS: How many people work at the cemetery?

ZW: I’ve got four other full-time employees. During the growing season, I’ll get two to three more part-time help for weed eating and more groundskeeping chores. Of course, preparing for Memorial Day and Veterans Day are all in the growing season.

WS: What are the busiest days for people to visit?

ZW: Memorial Day is the No. 1 day. Usually the whole week before Memorial Day and the week after, this place stays so packed we can barely get maintenance done because there are so many people here. Second would be Veterans Day, and then Mother’s Day and Father’s Day would be the next busiest times.

WS: What part of the job surprised you the most after you started as manager?

ZW: What’s really surprised me … It’s shown me how different people deal with death. Even in a community as small as Clark County, the variety of ways people deal with death… It’s been eye-opening. It’s a difficult thing for most people. It’s allowed me to meet a lot of people and I’ve been blessed to be able to help people in the darkest days of their life. That’s been very rewarding.

WS: How do you see your role at the cemetery with 160 years of history here?

ZW: I take great pride in my role. It’s hard to sum up the role in one word. I take great pride in being able to honor our deceased loved ones here in Clark County. Being able to honor the deceased veterans and non-veterans and then being able to help and comfort the families at that time of the loss. I take that to heart and that means a lot to me to try and help. I don’t know what you’d call that.

WS: Caretaker, maybe?

ZW: That’s what a lot of people call cemetery managers. I guess that might be where it stemmed from. I Like to think of myself as Mr. Fix-It, a problem solver. There’s always problems as far as ground maintenance. Where the cemetery’s so old, there’s problems with older records. Being able to help people and come up with solutions for their loved ones is very important. I like being able to provide that service.

WS: What do most people ask when they find out you manage a cemetery?

ZW: Most people think of it as morbid. That’s the direction their mind goes. Most people try to deny that everyone’s fate will end up in death. That’s the direction most people go. Most people think cemetery managers ought to be older men, rather than younger men. It kind of catches people off guard. I like to explain more about it and all the services we provide and what an honor it is to serve, not only the families but the deceased here.

WS: I wouldn’t have thought running a cemetery would not involve as many people.

ZW: Absolutely. Most people think of cemeteries as a very quiet place, but I can tell you the cemetery office is not a quiet place. It is a high traffic zone. Between the phone and people coming in, I deal with a lot of people every day. It’s very demanding as far as being here all the time in people’s time of need. I definitely don’t take that lightly.