New York Laws
Article 15 - Public Cemetery Corporations
1506-C - Abandoned Cemetery Maintenance by Cemetery Corporations.

(a) Upon application and approval by the cemetery board, a cemetery
corporation may assume management and maintenance of an abandoned
cemetery. For the purposes of this section, abandoned cemetery means a
cemetery which was previously owned by a cemetery corporation organized
pursuant to this chapter or existing by virtue of the membership
corporation law, for which there no longer exists any corporate board or
body to maintain it, and for which there is no sufficient trust fund or
endowment to provide ordinary and necessary care and maintenance.
Provided, however, that in no event shall the cemetery board approve the
assumption of the management and maintenance of an abandoned cemetery
under this section if the abandoned cemetery was affiliated with any
religious denomination or tradition or if the majority of the persons
whose bodies were interred in such cemetery were affiliated with any
religious denomination or tradition unless the cemetery assuming the
management and maintenance of such abandoned cemetery follows the
customs and practices of the same religious denomination or tradition.
(b) A cemetery corporation assuming management and maintenance of an
abandoned cemetery shall make application for funds pursuant to
paragraph (h) of section fifteen hundred seven of this article and
section ninety-seven-r of the state finance law for maintenance of
abandoned cemeteries. Within sixty days of submission of a completed
application, the cemetery board shall approve or deny such application.
(c) Monies disbursed under such assumption shall be used exclusively
for the purpose of the management and maintenance of an abandoned
cemetery such as the ordinary and necessary care of a cemetery,
including the removal of grass and weeds, the refilling of graves, and
the preservation, care, and fencing of a cemetery, and also including
the care of crypts, niches, grave sites, monuments, and memorials paid
for by means of the general fund or special fund or the income applied
from the permanent maintenance fund, perpetual care fund, monument
maintenance fund, general fund, or a special fund of the abandoned
cemetery.
(d) Any residual funds disbursed to a cemetery corporation after the
maintenance of an abandoned cemetery has been performed must be returned
to the cemetery board for redeposit into the state cemetery vandalism
restoration, monument repair or removal and administration fund
established by section ninety-seven-r of the state finance law.
(e) Within ninety days of its receipt of disbursements, the cemetery
corporation shall make a report to the cemetery board setting forth
details of the maintenance and clean-up undertaken and the amount of
funds, if any, to be redeposited into the fund. If the maintenance and
clean-up have not been completed, or necessary equipment has not been
purchased, the reasons therefor shall be set forth, and the anticipated
date for a subsequent, final report shall be disclosed.