On Tuesday, May 16, 2017, The Ohio House State & Local Government Committee received proponent testimonies for House Bill 168.:
"To Modify Cemetery Law"
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Below is Mr. DeTemple's testimony in support of House Bill 168 , which cites Ohio Revised Codes with details of each one and how each affects Ohio's cemeteries.
Mr. DeTemple's testimony is a powerful one that conveys the message of the importance of being enabled to properly preserve Ohio's cemeteries, their gravesites, and the gravestones and monuments that mark them. That township trustees require adequate funding to conduct the proper ongoing maintenance for their township cemeteries.
We join the Ohio Township Association in support of House Bill 168
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“A freshman lawmaker has taken up a cause begun late in the
last session of the Ohio Legislature that would implement the Cemetery Grant
Program recommended by a 2014 task force.
Rep. Dick Stein, R-Norwalk, proposed House Bill 168 primarily
“to assure we honor and respect all those interred in over 2,400 not for profit
cemeteries across Ohio,” he told fellow members of the House of Representatives
in a cosponsor request. “Local government funds have shrunk in recent years
putting more pressure on our administrators to find solutions for cemetery
repairs and maintenance, as mandated by law.
“This bill provides much needed assistance in securing
grants to specifically address our cemetery managers’ responsibilities to honor
our deceased.”
The bill establishes the grant program in addition to
modifying the duties of the Department of Commerce’s Real Estate division
regarding cemetery registration and specifying cemetery owners must reasonably
maintain cemeteries.
Initial funding of the grant program — $100,000 — would fund
grants for Fiscal Year 2018, Stein explained.
“This seed money comes from existing funds set aside by the
$2.50 burial permit fees collected by Commerce,” he said. “Future replenishment
of these funds will be provided by setting aside $1 of the $2.50 burial permit
fee to continue funding these grants.”
HB 168 stipulates the Real Estate division use the funding
to advance grants to registered, nonprofit cemeteries to defray the costs of
cemetery maintenance or training cemetery personnel in the maintenance and
operation of cemeteries.
Further, the bill limits the division’s grant awards to no
more than 80 percent of the total fiscal year appropriation.
As for the bill’s provisions specific to maintenance, the
bill clearly defines the meaning: “The care of a cemetery and of the lots,
graves, crypts, niches, mausoleums, memorials, and markers therein, including
the cutting, trimming, and removal of trees; repair of drains, water lines,
roads, fences, and buildings; and payment of expenses necessary for maintaining
necessary records of lot ownership, transfers, and burials.”
The Real Estate
division or a duly created Cemetery Dispute Resolution Commission will have
final say in whether a given cemetery owner has undertaken reasonable
maintenance."
