The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Local News

April 24, 2008

Eminent domain being used in attempt to take over cemetery

Monroe County Commission

By Christian Giggenbach

UNION — The Monroe County Commission is attempting to obtain ownership of a cemetery, using its powers of eminent domain, because the private owner allegedly has “desecrated the burial ground” by removing tombstones and allowing “raw sewage” to run over graves.

Commissioners Oliver Porterfield, Joyce Pritt and Shane Ashley named Irvin Lee Mann Jr. as the defendant in a lawsuit filed last week that seeks the more than 30,000-square-foot property in Lindside.

The suit states the plot of land is an old cemetery where human remains were last interred in 1914. The commission is seeking to take the property from Mann, pay him for fair market value for it and then restore the cemetery “for the solemn and respectful final resting place for the citizens therein buried.”

“Upon information and belief all grave markers were removed from existing graves in violation of law, and discarded or destroyed, it is believed that some markers may exist over a steep wooded embankment adjoining the cemetery,” the suit states.

“The property has been illegally utilized for residential purposes for some time, and has been recently used by (Mann) as a resident with residential rental structure also on the property.

“... (Mann) has unlawfully allowed raw untreated sewage to run unattended over and across the cemetery property, further desecrating the burial ground.”

A telephone listing for Mann could not be found Thursday.

Ashley said some of the problems with the cemetery began with previous owners of the land, and believes the matter needs to be resolved out of respect for those who are buried there.

“What the commission wants to do is to come in and clean it up and restore it back to the original cemetery and make it presentable and a good resting place for the people that are buried there,” he said Thursday. “I am for protecting the cemetery where somebody’s mother or father may be buried.”

Ashley said he was unsure how many grave sites there are or their exact names, but said, “I’m pretty sure we can work this out.”

The lawsuit also stated the commission does not intend to “create new sites for burials, but only to prevent the further violations of existing graves.”

— E-mail: cgiggenbach@register-herald.com

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