The power to acquire lands by condemnation herein granted to said cities and counties for the purpose of such airport or landing field shall embrace the power to acquire by condemnation any dwelling, yard, orchard, garden, kitchen, church, burial ground, graveyard, or cemetery located on or situate upon the lands found necessary to be acquired for such purpose; and in event there are graves located on such lands which be necessary to be acquired for such purposes by condemnation, it shall be lawful for said cities and counties, after thirty-days' notice to the husband or wife, or next of kin of the deceased buried therein, or the person in control of such graves, if any are known, and if not known, then after publishing a notice once a week for four consecutive weeks in a newspaper published in Vance County and for a like period in a newspaper published in Granville County, to open such graves, and to take therefrom any dead body, or part thereof buried therein, and anything interred therewith, and to remove and reinter the same in some other cemetery or suitable place in the same county to be selected by the next of kin, or welfare officer of the county or by the clerk of the superior court of said county, in the order named. Due care shall be taken to do this work in a proper and decent manner, and, if necessary, to furnish suitable coffins or boxes for reinterring said remains. Due care shall also be taken to remove all tombstones and other markers from said graves, and to protect and replace all such tombstones or other markers so as to leave the new grave in as good condition as the former one. All of said work shall be done under the direction and supervision of the welfare officer of the county, if one, or her representatives, but if there is no welfare officer, then under the direction and supervision of the clerk of the superior court of said county, or his representatives. All expenses connected with said work, including the actual expenses of one of "next of kin" in attending to the same, if one does attend, shall be borne by said cities and counties doing or causing the same to be done.
(Session Laws 1945, Ch. 451, § 5)
Statutory reference:
Condemnation, see G.S. §§ 63-5 and 63-49