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Dorchester County keeps burial-site preservation board, grants one-year test after public outcry
Summary
After a public hearing with multiple residents urging continued county oversight of historic and private burial plots, Dorchester County Council voted to retain the Burial Site Preservation advisory board for a one-year trial rather than repeal the county ordinance outright.
The Dorchester County Council voted Jan. 21 to retain its Burial Site Preservation advisory board for a one-year test period, rejecting a proposed repeal of the county ordinance that had created the board.
The proposal before the council would have repealed Chapter 63 of the Dorchester County Code, the countys burial-site preservation law. Miss Webb, a county staff member, told the council the board had low participation and that many enforcement functions overlap with the Maryland Historical Trust and state law. "There is already the Maryland Historic Trust as the enforcement entity for the state, and we are basically duplicating the effort," Webb said.
Residents and descendants of long-settled families urged the council not to eliminate the county mechanism for recording and responding to destruction of cemeteries. Dorothy Samanis, who identified herself as a long-term Dorchester County resident, said: "Dorchester County has been burying people since 1669."…
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