Memorial Day weekend is often considered the kickoff of the vacation season. It’s also a time for remembering those who have died while serving in the country’s armed forces. But the chairman of the Arkansas Cemetery Board, Bill Booker of Little Rock, says historically, it was a time for families and communities to gather across the country for another reason.
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Booker says this ritual has changed over the years.
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Booker says as time has passed, the emotional connection between the living generation and those who have gone on over multiple generations has been lost.
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Booker says the Arkansas Cemetery Board has very narrow authority over about 110 cemeteries in Arkansas referred to as perpetually maintained. In those cases, when people purchase property in a cemetery, a percentage of the grave costs are placed in a trust fund and monitored by the state, with the earnings used for maintenance.
However, Booker says the board receives calls both asking for assistance and complaining about the condition of the hundreds of other small family and community cemeteries for which the board does not regulate or having any control over. He says in many cases, they are challenged to even identify someone to contact at these cemeteries.
Booker says there is more at stake in these cases than just the physical upkeep of the small cemeteries.
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…in effect be lost.
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Booker says some communities have banded together with city and county governments helping to maintain the cemeteries. But the general situation is one in which these government entities are already financially strained in covering their other responsibilities.
Booker says there is no good answer to the needs of Arkansas’s small cemeteries.
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