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SENATE
BILL 5275
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Passed
Legislature - 1993 Regular Session
State of Washington 53rd
Legislature 1993 Regular Session
By
Read first time 01/20/93. Referred to Committee on
Government Operations.
Authorizing nonprofit corporations to
restore, maintain, and protect abandoned cemeteries.
AN ACT Relating to abandoned cemeteries; and
amending RCW 68.60.030.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF
WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1.
RCW 68.60.030 and 1990 c 92 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)(a) The archaeological and historical
division of the department of community development may grant by
nontransferable certificate authority to maintain and protect an abandoned
cemetery upon application made by a preservation organization which has been incorporated
for the purpose of restoring, maintaining, and protecting an abandoned
cemetery. Such authority shall be limited to the care, maintenance,
restoration, protection, and historical preservation of the abandoned cemetery,
and shall not include authority to make burials, unless specifically granted by
the cemetery board.
(b) Those preservation and maintenance
corporations that are granted authority to maintain and protect an abandoned
cemetery shall be entitled to hold and possess burial records, maps, and other
historical documents as may exist. Maintenance and preservation corporations
that are granted authority to maintain and protect an abandoned cemetery shall
not be liable to those claiming burial rights, ancestral ownership, or to any
other person or organization alleging to have control by any form of conveyance
not previously recorded at the county auditor's office within the county in
which the abandoned cemetery exists. Such organizations shall not be liable
for any reasonable alterations made during restoration work on memorials,
roadways, walkways, features, plantings, or any other detail of the abandoned
cemetery.
(c) Should the maintenance and
preservation corporation be dissolved, the archaeological and historical
division of the department of community development shall revoke the
certificate of authority.
(d) Maintenance and preservation
corporations that are granted authority to maintain and protect an abandoned
cemetery may establish care funds pursuant to chapter 68.44 RCW, and shall
report in accordance with chapter 68.44 RCW to the state cemetery board.
(2) Except as provided in subsection (1) of
this section, the department of community development may, in its sole
discretion, authorize any Washington nonprofit corporation that is not
expressly incorporated for the purpose of restoring, maintaining, and
protecting an abandoned cemetery, to restore, maintain, and protect one or more
abandoned cemeteries. The authorization may include the right of access to any
burial records, maps, and other historical documents, but shall not include the
right to be the permanent custodian of original records, maps, or documents.
This authorization shall be granted by a nontransferable certificate of
authority. Any nonprofit corporation authorized and acting under this
subsection is immune from liability to the same extent as if it were a
preservation organization holding a certificate of authority under subsection
(1) of this section.
(3) The department of community development
shall establish standards and guidelines for granting certificates of authority
under subsections (1) and (2) of this section to assure that any restoration,
maintenance, and protection activities authorized under this subsection are
conducted and supervised in an appropriate manner.
