Very interesting reading....... -----Original Message----- From: Paul M Kankula - nn8nn [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2004 6:19 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [SCGENWEB] SC Cemetery Laws - A Need For Change For your information. I'm the coordinator for the "Golden Corner" of South Carolina - Anderson, Oconee & Pickens counties. During the past 7 years, I have listened to one sad cemetery story after another. Either a cemetery has been desecrated by the landowner and/or visitation and maintenance is not being granted to family members. Then I have joyously watched Eagle Scout candidates restore desecrated cemeteries for their service project requirement in my area. Most landowners are very sensitive to descendant request and welcome family visitations and cemetery improvements. However, there are a handful of "mentally challenged" individuals who have earned my "Excellence of Stupidity" award..! - One landowner fell trees on top of their cemetery in order to hide it. - One landowner built a house on top of their cemetery. - One landowner used their field-stone markers for building a chimney. - Several farmers have planted crops on top of their cemeteries. - One landowner used their field-stone markers to build a water damn to help stop soil erosion. - One landowner stores his hay in their cemetery's fenced in area. - Several farmers are letting their livestock slowly destroy their cemeteries. - One fool even took 43 pioneer tombstones to the public landfill for disposal! (The landfill manager wouldn't accept the material. We assume that there now on the bottom of some lake) When descendants complain to their County Sheriff, they are told that nothing can be done... they must catch the landowner in the act. Their also told that the cemetery desecration might have taken place before there were cemetery laws in place and that nothing can be done. I just love this recent "toothless" law. South Carolina Code of Laws, Title 6, Chapter 1, General Provisions, Article One, Section 6-1-35 (a) Counties and municipalities are authorized to preserve and protect any cemetery located within its jurisdiction which the county or municipality determines has been abandoned or is not being maintained and are further authorized to expend public funds and use county or municipal inmate labor, in the manner authorized by law, in connection with the cemetery. (b) As used in this section, the term "preserve and protect" means to keep safe from destruction, peril, or other adversity and may include the placement of signs, markers, fencing or other appropriate features so as to identify the site as a cemetery and so as to aid in the preservation and protection of the abandoned cemetery. When descendants contacted their County Board of Officials and asked for help, they were told the county has better things to do with their time & money. Just because they are authorized to do something, that doesn't mean that they'll do it. How discouraging! Then there's these recent bills. S-0760 Bill 12-02-03 To provide an easement for the relatives and descendants of any person buried in a cemetery for ingress and egress for the purpose of visiting the cemetery. FAILED TO PASS S-426 Bill 2-27-03 To provide that it is unlawful for a person who owns property on which an African-American cemetery that has been designated as historic by the Department of Archives and History is situated to remove or disturb the graves, or develop the land, and to provide a penalty. H-3473 Bill, 1-30-03 To provide that it is unlawful for a person to steal anything of value from certain repositories of human remains. I must be missing something here... Are our existing SC Cemetery Laws so bad that amending bills of this type are needed to be passed? Is this an example of my hard-earned tax dollars at work? Must be. Here's something that I'll never understand. People are allowed to bury their love-ones in their front yards - complete with large memorial markers. Now landowner visitation problems will surely continue for years to come... It's time for public outcry... The continued passing of amended bills and then moving on to something else needs to be stopped. Good laws need to be passed that don't always need to always be amended. Until someone sits down and compares SC's current cemetery laws to that of other "more technically advanced" states, SC is always going to have flawed laws! Obviously, our lawmakers are simply lacking in cemetery knowledge. The governor really needs to hire an outside consulting firm who knows their stuff and will make intelligent change recommendations. Public rage is growing in my area and I'm sure that it will be spreading towards yours. Actually, I would be surprised if its not already there. I encourage individuals and Genealogical Society members to contact Governor Mark Sanford directly with their concerns and constructive criticism. I assure you that Governor Sanford will get involved, if, enough people request his help. Address: Office of the Governor, Box 12267, Columbia, SC 29211 Phone: 803-734-2100 & Fax 803-734-5167 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail Form: http://www.scgovernor.com/Contact.asp?sitecontentid=33 Website: http://www.scgovernor.com/ A fellow by the name of Carlie Butts started this cemetery law need-for-change about 3 years ago. As a result, He wrote an excellent guide called THE FORGOTTEN RESTING PLACE. A copy of this guide can be found near the bottom of webpage at http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/sc/oconee/cemeteries/c024.txt. Paul M Kankula - nn8nn [email protected] SC GenWeb "Golden Corner" Coordinator ==== SCGEN Mailing List ==== SCGenWeb Archives http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/sc/scfiles.htm