>From: INPCRP-D-request(a)rootsweb.com
>Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 10:22:17 -0700 (PDT)
>Subject: INPCRP-D Digest V99 #125
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>INPCRP-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 125
>
>Today's Topics:
> #1 [INPCRP-L] Gov. O'Bannon and HB 15 ["Lois Mauk"
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>Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 00:14:56 -0400
>From: "Lois Mauk" <LawOfficeInformationSystem(a)worldnet.att.net>
>To: INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com
>Message-ID: <009401be9b65$4b4b97c0$2b08fea9@lois>
>Subject: [INPCRP-L] Gov. O'Bannon and HB 1522
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>Just wanted to let you know that Gov. O'Bannon will be formally signing
>House Bill 1522 into law tomorrow, Tuesday, May 11th, at 1:00 (Indy time).
>
>I have been invited to be present for this ceremony and was told I could
>bring TWO guests. I worried for quite a while over who to ask. My first
>instinct was to invite U.S. District Court Judge Hugh Dillin, whose
>ancestors were disinterred last summer from Wilhoit Cemetery
>(http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp/HallofShame/wilhoitcem.html) to make way
>for a subdivision and which remains are STILL in a laboratory at the
>University of Indianapolis. Unfortunately, Judge Dillin has a trial
>tomorrow and can't join us.
>
>Our dear friend and veteran cemetery restorer Ron Baldwin from Monroe County
>will be attending with me, as will little Ashley Loweth, the 8-year-old who
>testified with us before the Indiana House of Representatives earlier this
>year. (Ashley's moving speech to the House is on the INPCRP website.)
>Ashley's family cemetery was blacktopped a number of years ago to build a
>strip shopping center. Her great-grandfather and other ancestors are today
>buried under several inches of blacktop in the parking lot
>(http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/5881/halemcbridecem.html).
>
>Bill Shaw, the Indianapolis Star reporter who wrote so poignantly about the
>obliteration of Rhoads Cemetery (see INPCRP Hall of Shame, Marion Co.) and
>of Wilhoit Cemetery, will be meeting us at the Capitol tomorrow, where we
>will also be joined by Ron Baldwin's wife Mary Jane, their friend Dave
>Foster, Ashley's mother and her paternal grandparents. Though they won't be
>able to join us in the Governor's office for the ceremony itself, they'll be
>there to share our collective sense of accomplishment in getting at least
>one Bill safely through the 1999 General Assembly.
>
>I wish I could take every one of you with us tomorrow to impress upon the
>Governor and the Legislators the fact that House Bill 1522 is an important
>FIRST STEP in protecting our pioneer cemeteries in this state. There is
>still a LOT to be done. The sad truth is that nothing in HB 1522 would
>prevent the travesties at Rhoads, Wilhoit or Hale-McBride Cemeteries from
>happening today because both were "legally" destroyed.
>
>What WILL House Bill 1522 do?
>
>(1) It will REMOVE the long-standing exemption granted to those involved in
>agricultural activities which permitted them to legally obliterate all
>visible signs of a cemetery's existence on private property. Most of us are
>familiar with one of more cemeteries that "vanished" when the stones were
>destroyed or used for fill and the cemetery cultivated or turned into
>pasture. (See Tucker Cemetery in Shelby Co., IN
><http://www.shelbynews.com/insideNewsstand.asp?ID=3783>.)
>
>(2) It will make it illegal to traffic in stolen cemetery art. This has
>been a sporadic problem in Indiana to date, but as the demand for such "yard
>art" continues (see Omaha World Herald article at
>http://omaha.com/OWH/StoryView/1,1344,139990,00.html and the recent Internet
>brouhaha over Ebay listing "used" grave markers for sale), it will
doubtless
>become a greater problem here. With this new statutory language, the
>authorities will have a mechanism for prosecuting the possession and sale of
>stolen cemetery art in Indiana.
>
>(3) It will make "disturbing, defacing or damaging" gravestones, markers,
>etc. a prosecutable crime. If the damage exceeds $2,500, the crime will be
>a Class D felony. Lesser damage will be a Class A misdemeanor. Those of us
>who have been intimately involved in repairing stones know full well that it
>won't take a lot of damage to exceed $2,500 if the repairs are done by a
>commercial enterprise such as a monument company. (Here in Jeffersonville,
>it recently cost $300 to have a monument company come in with a wench to put
>a single three-piece monument back together and none of the pieces in that
>instance were broken.)
>
>(4) It will require anyone lawfully removing (or moving) a grave memorial to
>file a detailed report with the County Recorder.
>
>Admittedly, HB 1522 makes no strides toward solving the problem of
>maintaining or restoring pioneer cemeteries that have been abandoned and
>neglected. This will be the main focus of our attention for the Year 2000
>session of the General Assembly.
>
>If you haven't done so lately, take a look at the "Needed Legislation"
page
>on the INPCRP website and see if you have any additions to suggest. These
>ideas will be important when we next meet with our Legislators as they begin
>their 1999 Summer Study Program on the subject of protecting pioneer
>cemeteries.
>
>I've said it before, but it can't be said often enough: "Thank you for
all
>your support in this effort." Your petition signatures, telephone calls,
>e-mails and letters were all very important in persuading the Legislators
>that this situation could not be ignored any longer. We're making progress,
>though these things never happen fast enough to suit most of us.
>
>With thanks and best regards,
>
>Lois
>- -------------------------------
>Indiana Pioneer Cemeteries Restoration Project:
>
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp
>