Mississippi town changes course; no cell tower in cemetery

Officials in Ellisville, Mississippi, and Cellular South have agreed to find another location for a cell-phone tower, and won't locate it in a local cemetery.

Ill. Supreme Court allows O'Hare expansion to proceed

In a notable eminent domain case, the court declined to review a decision from the appellate court, thus allowing seizure of cemetery land and expansion of O'Hare International Airport.

Trouble brewing in Mississippi town over cell tower

Residents in Ellisville, Mississippi, are upset over plans to erect a cell-phone tower in a cemetery. This also happened in New Jersey, where zoners in October rejected the proposal.

Toledo mulls cremation for indigent, instead of burials

Cremation would cost less than burial, authorities say; additionally, the cemetery is running out of burial plots.

Land needed in Scotland for a cemetery

Here's a story from across the Pond, in which a local community is seeking a site for a new cemetery. Some prospective sites so far have had shallow rock beds that make it difficult to dig graves, and others are tagged with other development labels.

City snowplows said to damage Brooklyn cemetery

Thanks to a friend on Facebook, Jonathan Appell, here's a story about some city snow plowers who allegedly knocked a huge pile of snow into a cemetery, with damaging results.

Equipment stolen from Texas cemetery

This blog has noted cases in the past in which thieves have stolen brass fixtures, wrought-iron gates and similar things from cemeteries.
As also noted in my research, these thefts harm a community's larger quality of life, because they divert countless crimefighting and judicial resources that otherwise could go toward fighting more serious crimes and prosecuting other perpetrators.
Well, here's another incident; this time, thieves stole lawn maintenance equipment from a cemetery in Orange, Texas. Again, while it seems like a petty crime compared with others, it's not for the cemetery operator who now needs to replace that equipment, and it again diverts precious police and court resources...in geography parlance, it is another example of a negative externality.

Illinois cemetery a financial drain

Government officials in Knoxville, Ill., are looking for ways to close a nearly $42,000 hole in their cemetery budget. Over the last five years or so, according to the treasurer, expenses totaled $221,671, while income was $180,047.

Kansas county takes over cemetery operation

Shawnee County in Kansas is now operating a cemetery after a couple that had been in charged turned over the reins.

New Year, new commitment to blogging

Greetings to everyone. It was a busy fall, as I took the penultimate class for my GIS certification at Rowan University. I'm most hopeful of doing this work at my place of employment, the Philadelphia Daily News (or Philly.com), but it's good to know I'm getting a new skill set in the event I need to go elsewhere.
Here are a couple of examples of maps I created for class. One is a map of the Mid-Atlantic Region's honey production for 2009; the other is a solution to a problem in which we had to determine, using a series of constraints, the best locations in southwestern New Jersey to locate a nursery.