The cemetery has an email address?

Yes, the Walnut Prairie Cemetery has an email address.  The new Cemetery Oversight Act requires the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR) to have a Cemetery Oversight Database.  The Act requires cemeteries to enter burial information into this database. The data is to be entered within ten business days of the burial.

So, I spent the afternoon trying to get myself up to speed and registering the cemetery.  They want an email for the administrator.  I thought about it, and decided to set up an email account for the cemetery.  I could have used mine, but this way if anyone else should take over what I do the email address isn't mine.  I went to gmail.com and 5 minutes later it was up and going.  I set it to forward to my personal email account.

I then registered the cemetery with the Illinois Cemetery Oversight Database.  At that point you discover you have to pre-pay for burial registration credits.  Yep, the state requires us to enter data in the database, but we have to pay for the right to enter data in the database.  If I were cynical I'd say the Governor's brother in law must be in the database business. I guess it's a good idea.  But I remember an old saying about the road to Hell being paved with good intentions.

The Cemetery Oversight Act P.A. 096-0863 (COA) is a 213 page document (click here for the condensed 81-page version) that was signed into law on January 18, 2010. This new law makes more than 40 separate references to rule making for the administration and implementation of this Act.  Or as someone put it, the laws were not being followed so the answer is make more laws.

If you walk into my office you'll see a nice four color notice framed and hanging on the wall.  Since it is the closest thing to an office for the cemetery I have to have this thing displayed on the wall.  In color, black and white won't do.

So if you have absolutely nothing else to do you can email the cemetery at walnutprairiecemetery@gmail.com