Sharing from the Zanesville "Times Recorder":
"An Eternal Burden: Townships Struggle with cemetery upkeep"
"An Eternal Burden: Townships Struggle with cemetery upkeep"
by Chris Crook
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Rock Spring Cemetery in Salt Creek Township, Muskingum County, Ohio lists only 61 burials on the website "Find A Grave."
Unlike with the Huntington Township in Ross County, Ohio, which flatly refuses to take over the long orphaned Floral Hills Memory Gardens, the Salt Creek Township trustees in Muskingum County have not abandoned the small size cemetery despite it posing a financial burden to them.:
Excerpts:
"There are more than 150 cemeteries scattered across Muskingum County that are cared for by townships or municipalities. For some townships, that care can become a burden.
By law, should an organization wish to divest itself of a burial ground, the township in which it is located takes over care of the property — even if it has no desire to do so.
In the case of Rock Spring Cemetery, that responsibility falls on the Salt Creek Township's sole full-time employee and trio of township trustees."
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"Steven Bradley is a township trustee for Meigs Township in the southeast corner of Muskingum County. The township's pair of workers care for two cemeteries.
"We only have two, but looking down the road, you might end up with all of them," Bradley said, referring to cemeteries that are maintained by churches now but could end up under the care of the township in the future. "We tried to pass a cemetery levy, but it failed. If we got more, we'd have to put another on."Bradley doesn't consider taking care of the cemeteries in his township to be a burden, but notes cemetery maintenance isn't just about mowing. "The biggest thing is trying to keep the stones plumb and working on that is a pretty heavy job," he said.Townships are supposed to keep a fence around each cemetery. Meigs Township has a pair of fences to replace on it's to do list."
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"It is all an unfunded mandate from the state" says Connie Fink, Ohio Township Association president and Springfield Township trustee. "We can't make our own laws, how we operate is totally dictated by the state legislature. We can only do what they tell us." That includes taking over cemeteries when the church supporting them disappears — or even if they no longer feel like maintaining them themselves.
"It puts a major burden
on some of the smaller
townships that maybe
don't have full time employees," Fink said.
"So it falls on trustees,
or pay someone else to do it."
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All Ohio Townships should be aware
of the ability to put
to the voters in their township
a continuing levy that includes
cemeteries with fire, police,
and EMS, and NOT placing
separate cemetery levies on
the ballot to the voters for passage
as stand-alone levies
which are more vulnerable
and more likely to fail.
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