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| Quinn Forms Cemetery Task Force |
As the scandal about human remains being dug up and tossed aside to make room for new bodies continues to unfold at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, the governor is calling for an investigation into the management of for-profit cemeteries.
Gov. Pat Quinn has signed an executive order forming the Cemetery Oversight Task Force will be charged with examining the industry and proposing needed consumer protection laws.
Attorney Patricia Brown Holmes, who has relatives buried at Burr Oak, will chair the nine-person task force. "I will do everything I can to make certain that our task force, within the time granted to us, does a thorough job of reviewing these circumstances...reviewing the management of this industry and that we propose to the governor various consumer protection laws that will prevent this type of situation from ever happening again," Holmes said.
The task force will make those recommendations to Quinn by Sept. 15.
Meanwhile Brent Adams, acting secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, has ordered funeral directors across the state to produce records reflecting business transactions with Burr Oak over the past five years. Adams was also appointed to the task force.
While embalmers and funeral directors are licensed by the state, Adams says the regulation really stops at the gate of the cemetery.
While the task force was charged with looking at for-profit cemeteries, Quinn said he would like the task force to look at all cemeteries in Illinois.
(Illinois Radio Network) |
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| 07 16 09 by Newsroom |
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