GREENUP — Greenup Fiscal Court is considering passing an ordinance that would require property owners to take steps to prevent cemeteries located on their lands from being defiled by livestock.
The measure, suggested by the chairman of the county’s cemetery preservation board, would require landowners to erect barriers or take other measures to keep their animals from knocking over tombstones, defecating on graves and inflicting other types of damage to burial grounds.
Under the proposed ordinance, property owners who fail to comply would be subject to fines ranging from $5 to $50 a day, County Attorney Mike Wilson told the court Tuesday.
According to Wilson, the ordinance would not place any responsibility for cemetery upkeep on property owners. However, he said it would require that they take reasonable measures to keep cattle from trampling on graves.
“I don’t think that’s too much to ask of a property owner,” he said.
A landowner found in violation of the ordinance would be given 30 days to correct the situation, Wilson said. If that person failed to do so, he or she could be cited into district court, he said.
One of the reasons that many small cemeteries in the county have become subject to neglect and abuse is that “they have gotten so old that no ones know anyone buried in them,” Wilson said.
A number of property owners have professed surprise upon learning that there are burial grounds located on their lands, cemetery board Chairman Elwood Tackett told the court.
Most property owners respect the dignity of the final resting places of those buried in the many small cemeteries scattered throughout the county, Tackett said.
“Unfortunately, a few do not,” he said.
In his role as cemetery board chairman, Tackett said he had visited most of the county’s more than 500 cemeteries, and that animal abuses seemed to be the most prevalent problem.
In one instance, Tackett said he had made a property aware of problems his livestock was causing and the landowner promised to take immediate corrective measures. That was nine months ago and nothing has yet been done, he said.
“We desperately need your help in preserving our remaining cemeteries,” Tackett told the court. “We ask you to pass this ordinance to help protect the gravesites of those who can no longer speak for themselves.”
The court voted to table the ordinance for further refinement. First reading is expected to come at the court’s May meeting.
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