An update on the cemetery bills going through the state legislature from the
INPCRP Coordinator Lois Mauk
Randy Klemme
-----Original Message-----
From: Lois Mauk <LawOfficeInformationSystem(a)worldnet.att.net>
To: INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com <INPCRP-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Date: Thursday, January 28, 1999 11:12 PM
Subject: [INPCRP-L] Belated Report on Senate Committee Hearing 1/27/99
This is my belated report on our appearance before the Senate
Committee on
Governmental and Regulatory Affairs on Wednesday, January 27, 1999:
I was joined in Indianapolis by Ron Baldwin and his wife Mary Jane, David
Foster and Jack Eaton. Also there was Bill Shaw, the Indianapolis
Star-News
reporter who wrote last year's "Death of a Cemetery"
story.
There were about 40 people crammed into a room better suited to hold 30 or
so. We were permitted to testify with respect to both Senate Bills.
Senator Paul opened the discussion by commenting that he was inspired to
draft the bill after attending the funeral of a friend and being surprised
at the declining condition of the cemetery where the friend was buried. He
mentioned that the cemetery was in desperate need of "rehabilitation" but
that the cemetery association was without funds to do the work needed.
Obviously, this was an "active" cemetery as the friend's burial was taking
place there and the cemetery had an association to help take care of it.
I suspect that that situation is similar to many happening here in the
state. The site is associated with a church or other group, there is a
loosely-organized association which keeps an eye on it, they have a small
CD
in the bank and use the interest on that CD to pay for keeping the
grass
mowed. There are no funds available for stone repair, removing trees, etc.
The same scenario is playing out all over the state.
I suspect, however, that the cemetery is on "private" property, not owned
by
the state, the county, the township or the city. In which case, I
question
whether the cemetery Senator Paul was trying to help would even be eligible
for the funding to be provided by SB 178.
When called to speak, I told them that rehabilitation funds were, in fact,
desperately needed by Indiana's cemeteries but that they were needed even
more so by Indiana's abandoned and neglected pioneer cemeteries, especially
the poor forgotten ones on private property. We explained to the Senators
that, by reliable estimates, 70 to 90 percent of all of Indiana's
cemeteries
are in fact small private cemeteries established in the early to
mid-1800s
on private property.
They did not understand what I meant when I referred to most of these being
on land that was never "deeded out" of the main tract. I told them about
our blacktopped cemetery down here in Clark County and that it was legal to
pave these occupied graves because taxes were "assessed and paid" on the
property.
I'm still hoping I didn't come across as a blithering idiot when I spoke
concerning SB 178. I got very nervous and seemed to lose the ability to
read. :-{ I did have the presence of mind to deliver to the Committee
copies of the 600+ petition signatures. At the last minute, I grabbed a
couple of pictures of "typical" abandoned and neglected Indiana pioneer
cemeteries out of my briefcase. I wanted them to have SOME idea of what we
were talking about.
Ron reported that, of the 300 cemeteries identified to date in Monroe
County
(Bloomington), only TWELVE of them are on "public" land,
owned or
controlled
by the county, cities or townships. The rest are on private land and,
as
such are not eligible for care by township trustees.
We talked to them about the blight of these lost and forgotten burial
grounds. I them pictures of two cemeteries that, for all appearances, are
nothing but an expanse of weeds and trees.
The Committee members did not seem to understand the true condition of
these
blighted, neglected, abused sites. They did not seem to grasp the
vastness
of the problem. Next time I'll take giant poster-sized blow-ups.
After further testimony, the Committee decided unanimously to HOLD on the
passing of SB 178.
After several other bills were discussed, the Committee turned to SB 280,
the bill sponsored by Sen. Pat Miller.
David Foster made several comments about the bill, including a suggestion
that the party seeking to move graves be required to file notice of a
specified type size in hopes that the notices won't get lost in the
classifieds and talked about the difficulty of moving some of the large
monuments, such as the tree-trunk type. (I don't think the Senators knew
what he was talking about but I think most of us have seen these Woodsmen
of
the World concrete tree trunk markers. I agree with David that they
are
going to be difficult if not impossible to move.)
Mr. Williamson of Historic Landmarks spoke briefly in favor of SB 280.
The President of Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis spoke about making
available burial space for "dislocated pioneers" (my expression, not his)
in
Crown Hill. He described Crown Hill's pioneer graves section with
1,063
relocated graves. It was not clear to any of us whether Crown Hill was
offering free burial space for relocated graves and their markers. I
rather
doubt that the space will be free and I was unclear whether he was
suggesting moving human remains from the far reaches of the state to Crown
Hill. The Senators certainly seemed to respond more attentively to his
comments than the pleas we were making.
The Committee stopped short of telling us to "go pound sand". There were
comments made that the State could do nothing about graves on private
property and could not be expected to help.
Among other comments that I made, I questioned the appropriateness of the
Department of Natural Resources seeming to swoop down on every accidental
or
intentional exposure of human remains in Indiana and warehousing the
remains
at the University of Indianapolis Forensics and Archeology
Laboratory.
I told the Committee that we have filed an Open Records Act request with
the
DNR and the University of Indianapolis requesting information on the
number
of pioneer graves excavated, the number of human's remains and the counties
in which they were located. Tomorrow will be a week since I sent those
requests and, much to my amazement, I have not yet heard from the State
Archeologist or the U of I.
I did a better job of sticking to my script on the second bill and was able
to read both pages of my notes.
The Committee voted unanimously to pass SB 280.
Additional information on each of these bills is available on the INPCRP
website at:
http://www.rootsweb.com
Sorry this report was so late. I was just beat when I got back from Indy
last night and then I worked 11 hours today.
Lois
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Have you signed an Indiana Pioneer Cemetery Restoration Project
PETITION TO THE INDIANA LEGISLATURE calling for revision of current
state laws regarding protection and maintenance of pioneer cemeteries?
See
http://www.rootsweb.com/~inpcrp
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Next meeting of the Clark County Cemetery Preservation Committee:
Saturday, Feb. 6, 1999 at 2 PM at Pleasant View Methodist Church on
Highway 60/111, near entrance to Deam's Lake, south of Borden
Website:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/5881
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