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Grants proposed for not-for-profit cemeteries in Ohio

KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News

Published: April 27, 2017

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.

Consideration of any of the following elements would figure into any determination by the commission:

The size and type of the cemetery;

The extent and use of available financial resources;

The contractual obligations for care and maintenance of the owner or person responsible for the operation of the registered cemetery;

The standard of maintenance of one or more similarly situated cemeteries. In determining whether a cemetery is similarly situated, the division shall consider the cemetery's size, type, location, topography, and financial resources.

The suggested maintenance guidelines the commission publishes in the Ohio Revised Code;

Other sections of the Revised Code related to cemetery maintenance; or

Any advisory letter or fine previously issued as a result of an investigation conducted under section 4767.08 of the Revised Code.

"This concept is supported by the Ohio Township Association, the Ohio Cemetery Association, the Catholic Conference of Ohio, and Ohio's Department of Commerce," Stein said.

HB 168, similar to House Bill 395 during the 131st General Assembly, had not been referred to committee for hearing as of publication.

Five fellow House members have signed on as cosponsors to the measure.

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