Volunteers press Clay County preservation board to pursue cemetery protections; Pleasant Point marker put on hold

Volunteers and board members at a Clay County Historic Preservation Board meeting discussed plans to form a cemetery preservation committee and agreed to delay formal acceptance of a Pleasant Point Cemetery marker application while ownership and documentation are clarified.

Public commenter Kathy Cass urged the board to act on historic cemeteries and offered volunteer help. “I know I met with you guys last month. I didn't see anything on the agenda about what I had proposed as far as making historic cemeteries part of charter and so I just wondered if there was any discussion going on about it,” Kathy Cass said, adding that her research had identified “79 in Clay County.”

The board took up new business on an application submitted by Griff Griffith for a Pleasant Point Cemetery marker. Board members and volunteers described a mix of documentary evidence including deed language indicating the parcel “deeded to be a cemetery,” research submitted to the county master file, and lists of interments compiled from sources such as Find a Grave and a national Black cemetery network registration.

Board members said determining ownership and maintenance responsibility is a prerequisite for accepting an application. Beth, the county planning director, advised that the marker application requires an owner or an entity willing to assume maintenance responsibility. “There is a deed on file, so you don't have to ask for permission. There's not an owner to go talk to,” Kathy Cass said in discussion; staff noted that an owner-designated party is needed on the application.

Given the state historic marker program’s backlog and outstanding documentation needs, the board agreed to ask the applicant to continue collecting documentation and to defer formal acceptance. “I think tabling it for now is a good decision,” a board member said. Several volunteers and board members said they plan to continue research, to explore potential trusteeship or grant funding for preservation, and to contact external organizations (for example, the U.S. Navy was mentioned as a potential outreach for veterans’ graves).

Board members also discussed creating a cemetery-focused subcommittee under the board to centralize documentation, coordinate master file updates, and identify legal options for county involvement with abandoned cemeteries. Beth said she would check county legal guidance with the county attorney’s office about statutes or ordinances that govern county authority over abandoned burial sites.

The item was left open for further documentation and legal review; no formal vote on the Pleasant Point application was recorded at the meeting.

The meeting’s approved minutes from the start of the session were the only formal action recorded during the portion of the transcript covering cemetery matters.