A review of available plots at Metro's pioneer cemeteries takes another step forward Thursday, with the Metro Council scheduled to review an inventory of graves believed to be unclaimed.
The Metro Council is scheduled to review an inventory that catalogues more than 2,000 owned-but-unclaimed graves in Metro's 14 cemeteries. Approval of the inventory will be the first step in a reclamation process to assert final determination of ownership on the graves in question.
Metro took over 14 Multnomah County cemeteries in 1994. Review of cemetery records has revealed that 2,517 burial spaces at Metro's cemeteries are owned but unclaimed, meaning no contact has been made with the original owners for 75 years or more.
State law allows reclamation of such burial sites through an administrative process, which Metro is undertaking by presenting the inventory to the council. The law passed in 2012, and Metro is the first to make this effort in Oregon.
The legislation is designed after model laws from the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association. Paul Slyman, director of Metro's Parks and Environmental Services Department, said that unclaimed graves are an issue faced by cemeteries everywhere.
The inventory of unclaimed graves, Slyman said, is an opportunity to recapture graves for the community.
Kimberly Palmero, a staffer with Metro's cemeteries program, agreed that this is the most important motivation behind the reclamation process.
"We have high demand for people to be buried in our cemeteries," Palmero said. "We're making this effort so these spaces can be made available to the community."
Once the Metro Council approves the inventory, Metro staff will have to make a series of attempts to contact those who might hold an interest in the unclaimed spaces. This includes sending a letter by certified mail, reaching out by phone and email, running a legal notice in the newspaper and posting signs at the cemeteries.
The notice period will run 120 days. After that, the Metro Council has to sign off on the list of graves that still are believed to be abandoned.
Slyman said the notice attempts are important and necessary steps in the process, but that experiences in other states indicate that it's unlikely people with original claims on the gravesites will come forward.
Reclaiming the gravesites will also allow Metro to pass clear title to people who were accidentally sold graves with a historic, albeit absent, owner.
"This is the most important initiative of the cemeteries program right now," Slyman said. "We have an obligation to modern families."