Graveyard found on solar farm property

Published 9:50 am Tuesday, November 21, 2017

WINTON – The Hertford County Board of Commissioners have approved a plan submitted by a solar energy firm to move old graves on property that is destined to become a solar farm.

It was at their Nov. 6 meeting where the board was provided a detailed update and subsequent plan for the disinterment and re-interment of graves in a cemetery that was discovered during an environmental site assessment performed by a company hired by the new landowners, Price Solar LLC. That firm is in the process of constructing a solar farm along Brickmill Road in the southern portion of Hertford County.

Charles “Chuck” Revelle, legal counsel to the board of commissioners, laid out the details of the plans submitted by Price Solar, at the approval of the next-of-kin of the family members buried on the property.

“A cemetery was located in the middle of a field on the property now owned by Price Solar,” Revelle noted. “It was an unkept cemetery, one with three headstones and four other visible slabs.”

Revelle additionally explained that if a grave is to be moved, there is a process to be followed.

“They (Price Solar) have gone through that process,” Revelle said. “Their first job was to find and locate the next-of-kin. That individual was found, the great-granddaughter of a man (George W. Lassiter) buried in that cemetery. The other headstones were also determined to be family members of that same individual.”

Revelle added that this individual, Jan Proctor of Chesapeake, VA, has been kept informed of all the findings made through the environmental site assessment.

“She has signed the permits for this – the disinterment and re-interment of these graves,” Revelle said, adding those permits are through the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.

Those graves will be moved from the middle of the field to the edge of the same field. As the property owners, Price Solar is responsible for all costs associated with the disinterment and re-interment.

Revelle said Price Solar went another step, paying for a radar-penetrating ground study of the area where the three tombstones were first located. That study revealed as many as 20 graves there.

“Price Solar will deal with all of those graves in the same manner…. disinterment and re-interment,” Revelle said. “Once all the graves are relocated to the edge of the field, Price Solar has agreed to provide access to that cemetery for any relatives who desire to visit.

“They (Price Solar) followed all the appropriate steps when dealing with moving a grave, but most importantly it appears that the heirs of this family are in agreement with the movement of these graves,” Revelle added.

The plan needed approval of the Hertford County Board of Commissioners, which was done without objection.

About Cal Bryant

Cal Bryant, a 40-year veteran of the newspaper industry, serves as the Editor at Roanoke-Chowan Publications, publishers of the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald, Gates County Index, and Front Porch Living magazine.

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