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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