A year and a half ago we started this effort to restore and provide a means to ensure that Rosa Bonheur and other pet cemeteries would be fairly regulated in the state of Maryland.
Its been tough work, but something all of us have enjoyed not only seeing the cemetery come back alive with flowers, memorials and visitors, but also something we've taken pride in doing.
One of our goals initially was to restore Bonheur to a workable and easily maintained state in the hopes that the owner would realize the importance of the cemetery, and take over the responsibility of maintaining his property. Unfortunately it seems that he is either unable, or unwilling to do this.
Another of our goals was to document, catalog, photograph, and map out the cemetery to show its historical value to Howard County, and to provide a history of the cemetery.
Unfortunately, the maintenance of the cemetery has required that the corps of volunteers spend most of their time fighting the ever growing grass, weeds, and debris each week and has not allowed us the time to document the occupants, find missing plots for people, or work on the bill and lobbying for its passing.
In light of this, we will be discontinuing the weekly mowing of the cemetery and will be concentrating on:
Mapping and documenting the headstones
Working on the bill and lobbying for its passing in the 2008 General Assembly
What this means is that we will be going out when we can to low mow sections of the cemetery. We will be plotting out the cemetery with string and flags again, concentrating only on small sections. Once that section has been plotted and mapped, we will move to another section. In this time, we will not be maintaining the cemetery, and invariably it will grow over again.
We encourage plot owners to make complaints to the Maryland Attorney General, the Howard County Consumer Protection personnel, and your Maryland Senators and Delegates regarding the upkeep of the cemetery, the breach of contract for perpetual care, and any other complaints regarding the upkeep of the property. One of the main arguments for the bill not passing this year was the claim that nobody had complained at all about pet cemeteries in the state of Maryland. We hope you will take advantage of the various agencies and lodge formal complaints about the disposition of the cemetery.
We appreciate everyone's words of support and hope you understand our need to complete the work that we set out to do, which is to document the cemetery, and save it from development.
Its been tough work, but something all of us have enjoyed not only seeing the cemetery come back alive with flowers, memorials and visitors, but also something we've taken pride in doing.
One of our goals initially was to restore Bonheur to a workable and easily maintained state in the hopes that the owner would realize the importance of the cemetery, and take over the responsibility of maintaining his property. Unfortunately it seems that he is either unable, or unwilling to do this.
Another of our goals was to document, catalog, photograph, and map out the cemetery to show its historical value to Howard County, and to provide a history of the cemetery.
Unfortunately, the maintenance of the cemetery has required that the corps of volunteers spend most of their time fighting the ever growing grass, weeds, and debris each week and has not allowed us the time to document the occupants, find missing plots for people, or work on the bill and lobbying for its passing.
In light of this, we will be discontinuing the weekly mowing of the cemetery and will be concentrating on:
Mapping and documenting the headstones
Working on the bill and lobbying for its passing in the 2008 General Assembly
What this means is that we will be going out when we can to low mow sections of the cemetery. We will be plotting out the cemetery with string and flags again, concentrating only on small sections. Once that section has been plotted and mapped, we will move to another section. In this time, we will not be maintaining the cemetery, and invariably it will grow over again.
We encourage plot owners to make complaints to the Maryland Attorney General, the Howard County Consumer Protection personnel, and your Maryland Senators and Delegates regarding the upkeep of the cemetery, the breach of contract for perpetual care, and any other complaints regarding the upkeep of the property. One of the main arguments for the bill not passing this year was the claim that nobody had complained at all about pet cemeteries in the state of Maryland. We hope you will take advantage of the various agencies and lodge formal complaints about the disposition of the cemetery.
We appreciate everyone's words of support and hope you understand our need to complete the work that we set out to do, which is to document the cemetery, and save it from development.
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