Bethel to spruce up abandoned cemetery

By FRITZ MAYER

KAUNEONGA LAKE, NY — There are some 6,000 cemeteries in New York State, and about 4,000 of them are private or family plots. When those cemeteries are abandoned, there is no state money available to maintain them. State law, however, gives municipalities the power to maintain the abandoned property should it so desire.

That’s what the lawmakers in the Town of Bethel decided to do regarding the abandoned Old Bethel Cemetery on Route 17B. At the town meeting on May 14, councilman Richard Crumley said that the cemetery, which had fallen trees resting on some of the headstones, was unsightly and given that it is situated on the town’s main corridor and passed by visitors going to Bethel Woods, the town should arrange to have the lot spruced up.

There was a brief discussion that other abandoned cemeteries in the town should also be maintained. But of the 12 private or family cemeteries in the town, it was not immediately clear how many were abandoned.

The vote to arrange to have the Old Bethel Cemetery cleaned up was unanimous.

For more information on cemeteries in New York State, go to www.dos.state.ny.us/cmty/cemetery.html, where one can learn many facts about graves. Did you know, for instance, that is there is no state-mandated time limit for filling a grave after burial, except that it be completed “with reasonable dispatch.”

Www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/pennsylvania_laws_regarding_burial_practices_and_cemeteries/1956 is the relevant website in Pennsylvania.