‘Get some respect back’: Cemetery access bill finding more success this year
Senate committee that killed similar measure in 2022 gives blessing
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PIERRE — David Mensch and his wife Glenda have traveled the country paying respects at the graves of their ancestors.
In Ohio, the Mensches visited a set of their great-great grandparents’ graves. In Iowa, another.
But just 20 miles from the Freeman-area couple’s home, they’ve been unable to honor dead relatives buried in an abandoned cemetery surrounded by private farm ground.
“We stand on a road in Yankton County because we can’t get there,” a tearful David Mensch told the Senate Local Government Committee Wednesday where a bill to open families’ access to abandoned cemeteries on privately-owned land earned preliminary approval.
NEWS: Paying respects from a distance: Property rights, family access drive abandoned cemetery debate
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