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Union Cemetery near Greensburg faces financial hardship

Union Cemetery near Greensburg faces financial hardship

With the possibility of a Hempfield cemetery falling into a state of neglect, a bank no longer able to pay for groundskeeping there is petitioning a Westmoreland County court to rid itself of its responsibility as quickly as possible.

The township has said it would assume First Commonwealth Bank’s role in financing the upkeep of Union Cemetery, located near Hannastown Golf Club about 2 miles north of downtown Greensburg.

Lawyers representing both sides are trying to figure how to notify the owners of burial plots there, pending a transfer.

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But the legal affair presents something of a quandary, involving an unusual amount of deliberation, partly because a state law governing burial grounds has no guidelines in place for such proceedings, said township solicitor Rachel Yantos, who is working on the case. As a result, the court is left to decide when and how the bank can hand over its groundskeeping duties.

“There’s not much to go on,” she said. “Nobody really knows much.”

At issue is the extent of responsibility the bank says it has over the cemetery.

On the books, its owner is listed as the Union Cemetery Association. Beyond that, though, the entity no longer exists, Ms. Yantos said.

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The lawyer for the bank, David Strazinsky, maintains that it is responsible only for the accounts tied to the association, given that the bank was appointed by the court as the association’s charitable trustee.

But Ms. Yantos and the state attorney general’s office have a different interpretation, arguing that the bank should assume all the responsibilities of the defunct association, including notifying plot owners and other legal matters.

“The bank never had that responsibility,” Mr. Strazinsky said. He acknowledged that it is unusual for banks to get involved in such affairs.

In a petition filed in Orphans’ Court of Westmoreland County in October, Mr. Strazinsky requested that the bank be allowed to relinquish its responsibility immediately, citing its nearly depleted trust fund. That same month, several volunteers gathered at the cemetery, removing overgrown grass and weeds.

But a month later, a Westmoreland County judge ordered that the bank continue paying to maintain the cemetery as the legal issues are worked out. Judge David Regoli ordered Ms. Yantos and Mr. Strazinsky to get in touch with the plot owners before moving forward with the case.

Incorporated in 1890, the cemetery, near Hannastown Golf Club, has had a few banks finance the upkeep of its grounds since the mid-1930s, according to court documents.

It passed into the hands of First Commonwealth around 2009. Since that year, fewer than 20 burials have taken place there, court documents show.

That was about a year after the departure of its former caretaker, who handed over to the bank documents related to the cemetery.

The transfer involved the governor’s office, which had initially requested that Westmoreland County assume the role, Mr. Strazinsky noted. He added that the bank and Hempfield were considered alternatives.

The bank has since spent nearly $140,000, paying a Westmoreland man $800 each time he mowed grass and performed other duties at the cemetery under a maintenance contract, including digging graves.

For its part, the township is open to serving as the new caretaker of the cemetery, and it intends to offer to mow its grounds a handful of times each year and remove snow when it exceeds 4 inches, Ms. Yantos said. She noted that under the state’s Second Class Township Code, Hempfield is required to perform groundskeeping duties at least twice a year at any cemetery within its boundaries that is deemed a nuisance.

The township could meet with the court later this month, after which the judge is expected to schedule a hearing on the bank’s petition.

In the meantime, the Rev. Sam Smolcic intends to continue watching over a small plot he owns at the hilltop cemetery.

“I have a lot of family there,” he said. Four of his relatives are buried there, and he also has purchased space for himself and his wife, Rev. Smolcic said.

Living within sight of the plot, he has mowed its grass since the late 1990s, when the first of his relatives was interred there.

But this summer, after revisiting the plot for the first time in a while amid other responsibilities, he was dismayed to find its grounds neglected.

“It looked like something out of the ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ ” he said, referring to the movie. “It was frightening.”

First Published: January 15, 2015, 5:00 a.m.

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