Council group manager service delivery Jules Witt also said the council wanted to talk directly with Balclutha resident Andrea Craig, who recently raised her concerns about the state of the cemetery.
If there was public support for maintaining the cemetery - and given some overall community resources were already available - an initial clean-up might not need to wait until the long-term plan process was complete, Mr Witt said.
Mrs Craig was recently shocked to discover the state of the Glenore cemetery, which she termed ''heartbreaking'' and a ''huge disgrace''.
She had visited the cemetery, about 10km west of Milton off State Highway 8, with her husband Lester.
Council officials initially said there was no money in the council's budget for the upkeep of the cemetery, but Mrs Craig was welcome to make a submission to the council's long-term plan, suggesting the work be funded.
Mrs Craig said yesterday she felt ''encouraged'' by the council's response and was keen to talk further with the council.
She would make a submission to the long-term plan and wanted to help make a regular tidy-up at the cemetery a reality, she said in an interview.
''I feel there's a little bit of light shining directly on the subject,'' she said.
She was pleased she had raised her concerns, and it would be ''fantastic'' if the council could help to tidy up the final resting places of those buried there, she said.
Clutha Mayor Bryan Cadogan said this week he did not want to prejudge anything, but submissions to the long-term plan provided a positive way for people to raise matters which could be included in future budgets, within some fiscal ''structure and discipline''.
Mr Cadogan also acknowledged some community resources could be available in this instance, including potentially free labour through community probation teams.
He was keeping an ''open mind'', including about the possibility of a tidy-up of the overgrown area before the onset of winter, given that it would take some time to complete the latest long-term plan.
''We'll give it consideration and we're looking for solutions,'' Mr Cadogan said.
The Glenore Manuka Trust, the group behind the restoration of the nearby Mt Stuart Reserve, set its sights on restoring the Glenore cemetery back in 2009.
Trust chairman Alan Williams, who has retired to Waimate, said any plans it had had for maintaining the graveyard languished about five years ago when community probation teams which had previously worked there for about five years, including maintaining access tracks, stopped working on the site on health and safety grounds, because there was no toilet.
Mr Witt said the council had access to a portable toilet and would be willing to help, if there was appropriate community support.
