Title 23, Title 23 and Safety

(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 str…

(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 located for a permit to alter or remove. The city or town council shall pre…

(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 to provide an accurate record …

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, if it de…

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.

(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…

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.

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 ar…

(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 withi…

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 er…

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 structur…

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 sums of money paid…

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…

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 of the st…

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 ma…

(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 twenty percent…

If at any time after a cemetery lot, crypt, or niche has been sold an agency receives additional funds from any source for perpetual care of the lot, crypt, or niche, all of the funds shall be deposited in the perpetual care fund.

The corpus or principal of perpetual care funds shall be maintained intact, and shall not be expended to pay for perpetual care or any other expenses, but the income and other earnings on the corpus or principal of perpetual care funds may be so expended.

Any person, member of a firm, or any officer or director of a corporation, failing to comply with any of the provisions of this chapter, upon each and every conviction of any of the provisions of this chapter, shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars ($100) nor more than …