§ 23-18-1. Definitions. The following terms used in this chapter, unless the context indicates otherwise, have the following meanings: (1) “Agencies” mean town cemeteries, religious or ecclesiastical society cemeteries, cemetery associations, or any person, firm, corporation, or unincorporated association previously or hereafter engaged in the business of conducting a cemetery or operating a community mausoleum […]
§ 23-18-10. City and town regulation of burial grounds. (a) The city or town council of any city or town may prohibit burials in the compact or thickly-populated parts of the city or town, and may make any bylaws and ordinances relating to burials and the use of grounds for burials in the city or […]
§ 23-18-10.1. Registering historical cemeteries. In addition to the records and indexes now required to be maintained by every recorder of deeds in all cities and towns, the recorder of deeds in every city and town shall maintain a register of all historical cemeteries located within the city or town. The tax assessor of each […]
§ 23-18-10.2. Exemption from liability. (a) A city, town, or public body shall not be held civilly liable for any breach of duty resulting in injury to the person or damage to the property or any person who voluntarily and without compensation, undertakes to maintain or to repair any designated historical cemetery pursuant to § […]
§ 23-18-11. Regulation of excavation around cemeteries. (a) The city or town council of any municipality may by ordinance prescribe standards regulating any construction or excavation in the city or town, when those standards are reasonably necessary to prevent deterioration of or damage to any cemetery or burial ground, or to any structures or gravesites […]
§ 23-18-11.1. Permit required to alter or remove historic cemetery — Powers of city or town council — Appeal. (a) Before an agency or a property owner may authorize or commence alteration or removal of any historic cemetery, the agency or owner must apply to the city or town council where the historic cemetery is […]
§ 23-18-11.2. Regulation of excavation — Removal and transfer of graves and cemeteries — Penalties. (a) The city or town council of any municipality may by ordinance prescribe standards, in addition to those required by § 23-18-10, regulating the excavation, removal, and transfer of any graves, grave sites, and cemeteries in the municipality so as […]
§ 23-18-12. Vandalism in cemetery — Civil penalties. Any person who shall be convicted of vandalism of cemetery property shall, in addition to any fine or penalty imposed by the court, pay treble damages to the agency whose cemetery sustained the damage. In the event the convicted offender is a minor, the family court may, […]
§ 23-18-13. Notification of historical preservation and heritage commission. The historical preservation and heritage commission shall be notified whenever an ancient burial place contains or is suspected to contain the remains of one or more persons. History of Section.P.L. 1992, ch. 478, § 2; P.L. 2011, ch. 117, § 1; P.L. 2011, ch. 126, § […]
§ 23-18-14. Records of disposition. (a) “Agencies”, as defined in § 23-18-1, are responsible for the proper maintenance of all records of disposition of human remains, and all burials shall be accompanied with appropriate records or combination of records giving location and name of deceased, date of burial, record of property owner, and a geographic […]
§ 23-18-15. Installation of veteran’s plaque. Any cemetery which accepts the remains of a military veteran for burial shall install, for a maximum charge of seventy-five dollars ($75.00), the plaque issued by the Veterans’ Administration to the deceased veteran, on the veteran’s gravesite. History of Section.P.L. 2009, ch. 231, § 1.
§ 23-18-2. Location of mausoleums and columbaria. Every community mausoleum, other than structures containing crypts erected or controlled by churches and religious societies, and every columbarium, or other similar structure intended to hold or contain the bodies or remains of the dead, the spaces, crypts, or niches of which are available to the public, shall […]
§ 23-18-2.1. Cremated human remains. (a) If a cemetery has rules or regulations in effect regarding the disposition of cremated human remains on or in cemetery property, those rules and regulations, if not contrary to law, shall be binding on all interested parties. (b) The scattering of cremated human remains within a cemetery shall be […]
§ 23-18-3. Approval of construction plans — Supervisory control. Before commencing the building, construction, or erection of any community mausoleum or columbarium, the agency constructing the structure shall make and file plans and specifications of the structure with the city or town clerk of the city or town where the structure is to be erected, […]
§ 23-18-4. Completion of structure and maintenance provisions required before interments. No structure shall be used for the purpose of depositing therein human remains until the structure is finally completed, nor until provision for maintenance of the structure has been provided in accordance with the requirements as provided by the city or town wherein the […]
§ 23-18-5. Sales before completion of structure — Bond. No crypt, room, or space in the structure shall be sold or offered for sale before the structure is entirely completed, unless and until the agency selling the crypt or niches, enters into an agreement whereby it agrees to refund to each and every purchaser all […]
§ 23-18-6. Proceeds of sales. The proceeds from the sales of crypts, niches, or any space in the structure, shall be used for the repayment of loans for the purpose of construction thereof with reasonable interest on the loans and for the construction, maintenance, and perpetual care of the structure, and may not be divided […]
§ 23-18-7. Re-interment of bodies in structure becoming health menace. Whenever a mausoleum, vault, crypt, or similar structure previously or hereafter erected and containing one or more deceased human bodies, shall, in the opinion of the city or town where the structure is located, become a menace to public health, and the owner or owners […]
§ 23-18-8. Speculative sales prohibited. The sale of cemetery lots or plots, or the sale of crypts or niches in a community mausoleum, or niches in a columbarium, crematory, or any other similar structure, for speculative purposes, or upon the promise, representation, or inducement to the purchaser that the structure may be resold at a […]
§ 23-18-8.1. Perpetual care funds. (a) All funds paid to or held by an agency for the purpose of funding the perpetual care of cemetery lots, crypts, or niches shall be maintained in a separate perpetual care fund, and shall not be commingled with any other funds of the agency; and (b) Not less than […]
