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Caroline County burial‑sites board will review stewardship guide, tables formal recommendation until Dec. 15
Summary
The Caroline County Burial Sites Preservation Board agreed to review an existing burial‑stewardship guide and table a formal recommendation to the county commissioners until its December meeting after legal staff cautioned the board’s authority is to recommend, not adopt, guidelines.
The Caroline County Burial Sites Preservation Board agreed Tuesday to delay a formal recommendation on adopting a published burial‑stewardship guide and instead tabled action until its Dec. 15 meeting so members can review the document and draft any amendments.
Board members discussed whether to post the coalition’s guide to burial‑site stewardship on the board’s page of the county website as a public resource. During the discussion, the board’s legal adviser cautioned that the board’s statutory role is to recommend guidelines, not to adopt and enforce them.
County Attorney Mr. Hammock told the board, “Your authority under chapter 89 of the code is to recommend guidelines,” and advised the group to clarify whether adoption would fall to the planning and codes department or to the county commissioners. He added he would get formal clarification for a future meeting.
Board members who spoke during the discussion endorsed using the existing guide rather than creating a new document from scratch. One member said the guide presents “a very comprehensive review of Maryland state law in terms of what you can and can’t do,” and suggested the board make the guide available as a resource on the county website while the board prepares a recommendation for commissioners.
Members also discussed practical matters around distribution and outreach, including whether to include a notice in county tax mailings for landowners who do not use the internet, and whether the county’s GIS burial‑site layer could be used to target outreach. A board member with genealogical research experience said he has GPS coordinates and burial counts for many Caroline County sites and offered to share that dataset with the board.
A motion to table further action and revisit the matter at the Dec. 15 meeting was made and seconded; the chair called for hands and declared the motion carried unanimously.
The board recorded next steps: members will read the guide, propose any wording amendments they consider necessary, and return with suggested revisions at the December meeting; the county attorney will provide clarification about which county body may adopt guidelines versus the board’s recommending role.
The board did not adopt the guide at the meeting; it moved instead to a formal review and possible recommendation at the next scheduled meeting.
