|
|
Decatur Township Supervisors' Chairman Andy Rebar attended the Clearfield County Commissioners meeting Tuesday to discuss the growing problem of abandoned cemeteries and who should be responsible for them. He said there are three in Decatur Township.
Rebar said there was an accident recently at one cemetery involving a 13-year-old girl. He said the girl hurt her leg and, although she is getting better, the township is waiting to see if there will be some type of legal action.
Commissioner John Sobel said in the early 1980s there was a volunteer organization started by John Whitehouse called the Clearfield County Cemetery Association. He said the organization was non-profit and had nothing to do with the county. He said he was the solicitor.
"It was a volunteer group of individuals," he said. Sobel said the group fell apart in the 1990s when Whitehead retired.
Rebar said something needs to be done about the cemeteries. He said many municipalities in the county have them and they are becoming a liability.
Sobel had two suggestions.
First, he said, the Township Code has a provision that allows supervisors to direct the owner to clean up the abandoned property.
"The board can also do it themselves and efforts can be made to collect payment," Sobel said.
"Or we could try to start up another county cemetery association," Sobel said. "While the other association was in existence, it did a lot to clean up the cemeteries, especially the ones that had graves with veterans."
Sobel said the county is willing to help start another association.
Commissioner Mark McCracken agreed.
"If we could get the association formed first, there is other help available," he said. "We could use state and county inmates to help with cleanup."
Rebar said something has to be done because, "this is becoming a tremendous liability for municipalities throughout the county."
