Fiscal Court OKs company's plan to relocate cemetery:

Carroll County Fiscal Court voted Tuesday to allow relocation of a cemetery on property owned by Nugent Sand Company on State Hwy. 36 West.

The Giltner Family Cemetery , now located on land behind Indiana-Kentucky Trucking Co., will be moved to Nugent Sand property that adjoins St. Peter Lutheran Church, also on Hwy. 36.

Fiscal Court approved the resolution to declare the cemetery abandoned, granting Nugent permission to proceed with its relocation. Judge-Executive Harold "Shorty" Tomlinson said Nugent will do so at its own expense.

Funeral director Rob Riley of Tandy-Ekler-Riley Funeral Home said a public notice appeared in The News-Democrat 60 days ago about the proposed relocation of the cemetery. He said no one stepped forward with objections or questions about the Giltner Cemetery .

Only one distant cousin of a family member buried in the cemetery has come to the current site in recent years, he noted.

Even before moving forward with the request to seek abandonment of the cemetery, Riley said officials were in contact with this individual. "That person has been in contact with us and that person is in favor, hoping that this move will cause this cemetery to be kept better than what it has been," he said.

"I'm thinking that it probably will be, because it's going to be located on Nugent property right there in the vicinity of Hunter's Bottom Cemetery, which is right there next to St. Peter Lutheran Church," Riley said. "So it's going to be highly visible at that point. I anticipate that it's going to be maintained."

Riley said there are 32 to 36 known graves in the cemetery. When relocation takes place, areas without headstones will be checked for unmarked graves.

Nugent is contracting with Riley's funeral home and with Searcy Monument Co. to relocate graves and remains. Riley said Searcy also will move headstones and reset them at the new site.

Should any graves be discovered later, such as in areas outside the cemetery's fence, Riley said the funeral home will be called to move those remains to the new location.

Tomlinson said he is pleased to know the cemetery relocation is being handled "professionally and reverently."