In answer to some of the messages regarding subject, following is an article
which appeared in the Syracuse Herald American, Sunday, April 22,2001.

STATE FUND EXPANDING CEMETERY AID
Agency will help pay for weather-beaten stones that could fall, hurt
somebody.
The Associated Press:

Albany -- A state fund created to help pay for repairs caused by the work of
cemetery vandals is being expanded to include the slower deterioration to
graveyard monuments caused by the elements.

The state Cemetery Board, which administers the Cemetery Vandalism
Restoration and Administration Fund, is circulating proposed guidelines for
a new version of the fund.

 Besides getting an even longer name -- the State Cemetery Vandalism
Restoration Monument Repair or Removal and Administration Fund -- the new
rules will make money available for dilapidated graveside monuments or
markers which pose a potential threat to cemetery visitors or workers.

"A lot of cemeteries have come to us and said they have fenced-off areas
where there are large stones and obelisks and they're very concerned that
people visiting could be killed or hurt from these things falling, " said
Frank Giglio, Chairman of the government and legal affairs committee for the
state Association of Cemeteries.

Some monuments can be more than 20 feet high.  Even small monuments can
weigh several tons.

"These are very heavy, very large monuments,' said Daniel Shapiro, associate
counsel and secretary-designee to the chairman of the state Cemetery Board.
"If they become unstable, if they are cracked, there is a potential they
could fall on somebody.  That is the fear."

Under these new rules for the fund, cemeteries must show that they tried --
and failed -- to locate the last known owner of a monument which is in
disrepair.

Once that process ends without finding relatives,cemeteries can apply for
reimbursement to the Cemetery Board.

The above might answer some of the questions that have been raised by this
group.  I am told by the president of our local cemetery that there is an
office of the Cemetery Board in Syracuse, N.Y. and one in Albany, N.Y.

Eleanor L. Preston, Tully Area Historical Society
www.tullyareahistorical.com

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