Forty-one municipalities are being awarded state grants for the repair and maintenance of neglected burial grounds and cemeteries, Gov. Ned Lamont announced Thursday.

"Cemeteries are sacred places, and maintaining them is essential out of respect for the dead and preserving our local heritage," Lamont said. "Particularly here in Connecticut, we have some of the oldest and most historic cemeteries in the nation. These state grants will provide municipalities with financial support to ensure that the deceased are remembered in a respectful manner."

The grants are for $5,000 apiece and will be released under Connecticut's Neglected Cemetery Account Grant Program. The program is funded through the state Department of Public Health from the issuance of death certificates and is intended to help provide basic maintenance, groundskeeping and the repair and restoration of memorial stones.

Lamont’s office said New London, East Lyme and Griswold were municipalities in the region eligible for the grants.

The fund was established in 2014. That year, a case emerged at the Old Byram Cemetery in Greenwich that brought the issue of abandoned cemeteries into stark relief. The cemetery had been neglected for much of its history, but in 2014 the grounds were damaged by nearby home renovation project.

According to an article in CT Explored by deputy state historic preservation officer Catherine Labadia, construction equipment was stored on site on top of the unmarked graves of African Americans and Native Americans. The area near the cemetery was cut back for terracing.

The town issued a stop-work order and descendants of those interred at the site sued to stop construction. A settlement was reached requiring that the old Black cemetery be memorialized. That cemetery is now maintained by volunteers.

The Byram Cemetery is just one of 5,000 graveyards across the state. Many graveyards are neglected or improperly cared for. In 2018, about 130 graves in the Park Cemetery in Bridgeport were found to have been vandalized. Fragments of coffins and human remains were found scattered at the cemetery. The former manager was arrested and in 2020, charged with embezzlement.

Many other cemeteries are simply abandoned. The state Department of Public Health approves new cemeteries, but no government agency is responsible for the management of cemetery maintenance.