17-946.

Cemetery association; powers of board of trustees; income; use.

(1) The board of trustees of a cemetery association formed pursuant to section 17-944 shall have power:

(a) To limit the number of cemetery lots that shall be owned by the same person at the same time;

(b) To prescribe rules for enclosing, adorning, and erecting monuments and tombstones on cemetery lots;

(c) To prohibit any diversions of the use of such lots, and any improper adornment thereof, but no religious tests shall be made as to the ownership of lots, the burial therein, or the ornamentation of graves or of such lots; and

(d) To pass rules and ordinances imposing penalties and fines, not exceeding one hundred dollars, regulating, governing, and protecting the cemetery, the owners of lots, visitors, and trespassers.

(2) The officers of a city of the second class or village in which a cemetery association has been formed pursuant to section 17-944 shall have as full jurisdiction and power in the enforcing of rules and ordinances passed pursuant to subsection (1) of this section as though such rules and ordinances related to such city or village itself.

(3) All money received from sale of lots in any such cemetery, or which may come to it by donation, bequest, or otherwise, shall be devoted exclusively to the care, management, adornment, and government of such cemetery itself and shall be expended exclusively for such purposes under the direction of the association's board of trustees, except that in addition, and notwithstanding any provision of Chapter 12, article 5, the principal of the fund that is attributable to money received from the sale of lots, or attributable to money which has come to the fund by donation, bequest, or otherwise that does not prohibit such use, may be used for the purchase and development of additional land to be used for cemetery purposes as long as no more than twenty-five percent of such principal is so used in any fiscal year and no more than thirty-five percent of such principal is so used in any period of ten consecutive fiscal years.

(4) This section does not limit the use of any money that comes to the city or village by donation, bequest, or otherwise that is not designated to be credited to the perpetual fund or that allows greater use for purchase or development of additional land to be used for cemetery purposes.