Ohio's most vulnerable cemeteries, its inactive and abandoned ones, are unregistered by the fact that there have been no burials in them for the past 25 years. Thus, as unregistered cemeteries, unlike their registered counterparts, they are ineligible for someone to register a complaint against those responsible for them.
Ohio has untold number of lost and forgotten cemeteries that have been neglected for decades; some in rural areas, and some in village and urban areas. It becomes a matter of community pride, available financial resources, along with the ravages of time, weather, and vandalism that can take a once presentable looking cemetery with rows of neatly standing gravestones into one that is barely recognizable as a cemetery.
Here is a link to the 260 page report of recommendations submitted by the Ohio Cemetery Law Task Force which met monthly in 2014 that was submitted to the Governor of Ohio, The Ohio Speaker of the House, and the Ohio Senate President -- so we can see that there is so much more to this story that remains to be addressed and decided upon.
