‘Get some respect back’: Cemetery access bill finding more success this year

Senate committee that killed similar measure in 2022 gives blessing

Glenda and David Mensch look upon a family cemetery from a nearby road. The couple has unsuccessfully tried to get the owner of the land that surrounds the cemetery to grant them access to the grave sites of at least 14 early settlers to the area. (Joe Sneve / The Dakota Scout)

PIERRE — David Mensch and his wife Glenda have traveled the country paying respects at the graves of their ancestors.

In Ohio, the Mensches visited a set of their great-great grandparents’ graves. In Iowa, another.

But just 20 miles from the Freeman-area couple’s home, they’ve been unable to honor dead relatives buried in an abandoned cemetery surrounded by private farm ground.

“We stand on a road in Yankton County because we can’t get there,” a tearful David Mensch told the Senate Local Government Committee Wednesday where a bill to open families’ access to abandoned cemeteries on privately-owned land earned preliminary approval.

NEWS: Paying respects from a distance: Property rights, family access drive abandoned cemetery debate