Columbia Association weighs plan for burial-site restoration

Columbia, Md (Map, News) - Prompted by a rising interest in preserving the small, historic burial grounds that dot the county, the Columbia Association is developing a policy for preserving plots on CA land.

“We are looking for the CA to come up with guidelines to say, ‘We will allow this, and we will not allow that,’ ” said Preservation Howard County’s Fred Dorsey, who has been helping with the preservation of a site at Harper’s Farm and Eliot’s Oak roads.

The push for a policy is being led by CA board member Cynthia Coyle, who has teamed with Dorsey and Harper’s Choice Village Board member Patti Petry in preserving the Columbia site.

In September, Coyle brought the idea for a preservation plan to the CA board’s performance oversight committee, which asked the Columbia Association staff to prepare an inventory, plan and budget, she said.

The inventory has been created and includes five sites. A policy would determine what the Columbia Association will allow on CA-owned land, Dorsey said.

The committee is planning to discuss a plan for burial sites at a meeting next week, but talk could be delayed until a plan is drafted, Coyle said.

“I’m very disappointed that [CA staff] has not prepared a policy or a budget proposal,” Coyle said.

Board member Michael Cornell, a member of the committee, said one of the major concerns was the occasional vandalism to these sites and a plan should address that.

“We want to know there is a policy in place and to make sure these things are taken care of,” he said.

Barbara Sieg, former president of the Ellicott City-based Coalition to Protect Maryland Burial Sites Inc., said she heard the CA was considering a plan and called it “the first step.”

“Maybe we will go from Columbia to all of Howard County,” she said, adding there are roughly 200 to 300 sites in Howard. “If we can do it in Columbia, then we can make a long-term plan.”

At a glance

The Columbia Association identified five burial sites in CA open space land:

» Dorsey-Simpson: Harper’s Choice at Harper’s Farm and Eliot’s Oak roads

» Cooke, Powell: Oakland Mills near White Acre and Thunder Hills roads

» Unidentified: Long Reach near High Tor Hill and Tamar Drive

» Vollmerhausen: King’s Contrivance at Black Velvet Path and Keepsake Way

» Wyman: King’s Contrivance: west of White Springs Way

Source: Columbia Association

smichael@baltinmoreexaminer.com