Finding this 2001 rejection letter today inspires me to continue fighting on behalf of inactive and abandoned cemeteries in Ohio.
The Ohio Revised Codes affecting cemeteries have not changed with regard to the stipulations affecting registration of complaints about a cemetery's deteriorated condition.
The laws in Ohio, as stated in the Ohio Revised Codes, still require cemeteries to be active and registered in order for a complaint to be filed against them. Cemeteries with no burials in the past twenty-five years, or a cemetery considered to be a family cemetery, are not eligible to be included in the complaint process, thus denying them the same protection afforded to active and registered cemeteries. To me, it's like saying these old cemeteries just do not matter any more.
Hopefully, one day soon in Ohio, the scales of justice will become balanced. The laws will change to allow concerned people the ability to register complaints against those who are responsible for the care of inactive and abandoned cemeteries due to their failure to properly maintain them.
Until then, we'll keep fighting on behalf of those who can no longer speak for themselves whose final resting places are lost or almost forgotten.
