Kitsap County looks to offload cemetery plots deeded to the county in 1897

Kitsap County is looking to sell four plots in Port Orchard’s Sidney Cemetery. The county was deeded the plots in the late 1890s and early 1900s.

The cemetery was originally platted in 1891, said Karen Goon, Kitsap County administrator.

“According to the 1984 quiet title action, the county had used two plots but those remains were reinterred at the Knights of Pythias gravesite sometime in the 1950s,” she said, referring to another Port Orchard cemetery.

Certain named defendants, but not Kitsap County, were ordered defaulted against in July 1984. Asserting that ownership was still uncertain, the 2020 quiet title action was filed naming Kitsap County, Goon said. In order for the county to relinquish whatever right it might have, the county’s property management code requires that the property be declared “surplus.” The board is considering a resolution, which is scheduled to be heard on Aug. 8.

The cemetery is densely overgrown and the county was unable to confirm whether any other remains were there.

The parcel is in Port Orchard city limits. Goon said it’s not uncommon for a county or city to own a cemetery, but it’s more common for counties to have cemetery districts, such as Skamania County. Kitsap does not have a cemetery district.

“As departments determine that parcels aren’t necessary to their programs or operations, departments go through the process of having the board declare surplus for public sale or for negotiated transfer to another governmental entity, such as a city,” Goon said.

The Kitsap County Coroner manages two plots at the Silverdale Pioneer Cemetery, located at Impasse Place NW, which were donated for burials of unclaimed remains.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: County wants to surplus plots at Port Orchard Sidney Cemetery