And just an aside, I see your point about working with them on anything of merit. Nobody wants a dirty environment or the death of a species that is struggling. It’s just at what point does one admit to common sense? How small an item do we wring our hands over?
You guys realize that this entire thread is basically the first 20 minutes of a horror movie? For God’s sake, you’re in Stephen King country! Don’t tear down the cross!
well the photos certain give it that flavor.
[QUOTE=Magiver;15637530me. The DEP is not concerned about the possibility that a tire has become a habitat for an endangered anything. .[/QUOTE]
Then you call them or write a letter or an email with a pic. They say “no problem, feel free to remove that piece of crap” then you are good to go as far as the DEP types are concerned. Its not that complicated.
Did anybody yet consider that perhaps somebody GOT a permit to put that atrocity there? Hell, maybe even the local major or state govenor was involved or something. Possibly illegally removing something that was legally placed on what might be public property should be loads of fun publicity and legallity wise.
Don’t get me wrong. The thing is tacky and should probably go and property rights and blah blah blah.
But a bunch of you sure look to me like you are going out of your way to do it the fast, loose, and possibly get the OP in all sorts of trouble for no good reason.
Exactly! It even has children’s toys on it!!
Let the dead stay dead.
I accidentally moved into a Stephen King movie (had skeletal remains in neat little packages all through the house)… after you get over the “WTF?” aspect… it can become quite fun in an “OMG, they’re shooting at me!” IRL sort of way 
You can’t just dam up a creek willy-nilly. Depending on the size, the amount of rain in the area, whether or not you live in a flood plain, changing the water flow could indeed cause a problem. Now, I doubt that little monument is going to do anything, but hell, even beaver dams can change things. And if there’s concrete imbedded there, I wouldn’t fuck with it without asking someone.
Renee, does your area ever have a problem with floods?
(I do think she should see about moving it, but doing it just on her own without consulting anyone is a dumbass idea, at the very least. She’s trying to do the right thing by the family as well.)
That’s why there is the “SSS” code of rural areas… Shoot, Shovel and Shut-up. Helps preserve the “friendly, salt of the earth image” dontchaknow!
Yeah…but only the kind that drowns people.
Well it’s possible that permits were sought and the Mayor stopped by, I highly doubt it.
I think the general flavor of this thread is to go slow on removing it in consideration of those who mourn the loss of a loved one.
Just looking at the pictures again it’s not sitting in water. It may be in a flood plain but it’s not in the continuous flow of water. Correct me if I’m wrong but flood plains can be mowed and kept up.
My Dept of Ag guy’s advice was:
- If you’re going to stir up enough silt to reach the next property down, either do it at night or talk to DEP first.
- If you’re going to drive something through swamp that is heavy enough to leave tracks (even smashed down plant tracks for more than a day), talk to DEP first because if you sink a tractor in a swamp, DEP is not going to find it funny because there has never been a tractor made that doesn’t leak oil.
- If you’re doing anything that can be seen from the road, talk to DEP before your neighbor does.
OTOH, I’ve never had DEP turn down any of my requests and to be fair about the bridge thing, their tweaks to make sure it didn’t wash out in heavy flooding and create a blockage probably saved me from having to rebuild it after some the the storms that we’ve had since then.
I say take down the cross, but then get some car decals made up with pictures of crosses and angels and the names of the deceased, and distribute them at the general store.
Careful when you order 'em - you don’t want to accidentally get Calvin pissing on the deceased.
What I’d do before this whole tale became google-able and what I’d do, knowing that this tale is google-able are two different things 
Two years ago, I moved to a rural environment (on 60 acres), and to be honest there’s so much stuff to do, it’d be at least a year or two before I’d get around to something like this anyway. Sounds like you’re in a similar position with all your renovations. By this time next year, you’ll have met your neighbours, have had chats with them, maybe shared more than a few beers, helped out with a tree fallen across the road, helped return some escaped cattle, etc and become seen as ‘a decent enough guy/gal’ within the community (though not a local, until you have 3 generations back in the area of course!). At some point, you’ll either be on speaking terms with the family of the victims themselves, or neighbourly enough with others, that you can bring it up, or much more likely, in one of those ‘sharing a beer’ sessions with the neighbours, someone else will bring it up for you in a ‘yarn about the local history’ context. The way the conversation unfolds will give you enough info to know how to proceed. So, my advice is to do nothing for a year or two while you do other stuff around the place, and the problem will either resolve itself organically, or you can just be matter-of-fact about the time having come for it to be gone from your property. It will not be an awkward topic to bring up once you know the locals and are no longer shiny new in the community, so just wait a while.
My solution:
[ul]
[li]get gorrilla suit,[/li][li]wear when removing cross,[/li][li]blame bigfoot.[/li][/ul]
I think most states require that grave sites on private property are registered with the state (and it might show up on title searches too). I think that’s so when the new owner is digging their swimming pool and come up with a body the local PD can either go…
“Oh… that’s old man Johnson… that’s where his grave went to… dang mud slides!”
or
“Hmmm… that looks like that missing Miss Pansy… always thought old man Johnson was on the squirrely side… Boys! Shut’er-down… we got us a crime scene to work!”
Or if you accidentally move into a Stephen King book… you find an unidentified cremated body in the basement.
(ETA: I know under PA law, those descended from the inhabitant of a grave can go to court to get permission to visit the grave site.)
Gaaah: Seriously Bad Advice here! The last person dressing up like Bigfoot, out in Montana, was struck and killed on the side of the highway by not one, but two cars. Renee cannot risk life and limb by roaming around in a gorilla suit out on that dangerously boggy land.
Is it wrong that I laughed at that?
Well in this case there is no swamp and no silt to stir up. The cross is on dry land when not in flood stage.
But your driveway story seems like an appropriately sized venture to involve various agencies to ensure things are done right.
Nope.