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Grave responsibility may fall on township
(by Sue Reid - October 15, 2008)
Grave responsibility may fall on township
By SUE REID
The question has been raised about whose responsibility it is to repair gravestones that are deteriorating at Auburn Township's two cemeteries.
"Our responsibilities under the Ohio Revised Code are very small," Trustee John Eberly said.
Auburn Fiscal Officer Susan Plavcan, who also serves as the township's cemetery sexton, said, although the cemeteries "are looking better than they have in years," many headstones that are lying flat or have broken off.
She said the conditions were discovered following the township road department's work at the cemeteries. For the past few years, road department employees have worked to cut down trees, remove dead branches and cut back shrubs. They have taken 100 truckloads of brush out of cemeteries the past few years, Mrs. Plavcan said. "Their hard work has shown us some of the deterioration at the cemeteries."
She told trustees that she recently took a guided tour of Lakeview Cemetery near Little Italy in Cleveland and was told of the policies regarding repairs there. If there is damage to a monument, the cemetery will try to contact family members to see if they would want to help pay for the repairs, she said.
"However, a lot of it just goes on a list of work that needs to be done." Mrs. Plavcan said she suspects the same would be true for Auburn's cemeteries.
"If a monument has fallen over and no one comments, chances are no one is visiting it, and it will probably be at our expense to pick it up and repair," she said. "I suspect the township will pay for it."
Township road foreman Emerick Gordon said that nearby Troy Township spent thousands of dollars to have stones fixed at its cemetery. There are not many visitors at Auburn's cemeteries, he said. "Families have not alerted us that stones have toppled."
Trustees discussed having a monument service stand up some of the stones.
"Our guys don't have the proper equipment to do that," Mrs. Plavcan said.
Mr. Gordon said that a monument business would have special hoists that can navigate through the spaces. "They can cement stones back to their base," he said.
Auburn's cemeteries are Maple Shade Cemetery at the corner of Washington Street and Auburn Road and Shadyside Cemetery on Ravenna Road (Route 44).
There are no deeds to any lots at Maple Shade Cemetery, Mrs. Plavcan said, but the township currently sells lots at Shadyside Cemetery.
Maple Shade was once a terraced cemetery, Trustee Patrick J. Cavanagh pointed out, but, as the ground has settled and become a hill, headstones slid off and fell over, he said.
Mrs. Plavcan said that even walking through the cemeteries can be dangerous because of so much settling. "You have to be careful," she said. "There are so many holes."
She said work in the cemeteries won't begin until next year. "Our funds kind of dried up with all the asphalt surcharges we had," she said. "Road work was more than anticipated. We're really on a budget. We are not spending money for things this year that we don't have to."
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