Due to extreme budget cuts by the state, Dane County is looking into other ways of making money, and one of their options is selling excess land. A parcel of land worth an estimated $300,000 had been set for sale. Now the county may no longer receive the expected cash because of a possible burial ground on the land.

One such plot in Verona, Badger Prairie, already adjoins two other cemeteries. Executive Assistant for the Dane County Executives Sharyn Wisniewski said the three known cemeteries are labeled as A, B and C, and only the locations of B and C are currently known. As for the third, Wisniewski said, there is no documentation saying where it is, only that it seems to exist.

“We thought from the beginning and still believe the parcel does not contain the burial site and we want to make sure that is the case,” Wisniewski said.

In order to figure out the mystery of the burial ground, Dane County Executives are working with the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Verona Library to research records of the land, Wisniewski said.

Deidre March, who works in the Historical Society’s Burial Site Preservation Program, said that his program locates sites in a variety of ways, including word of mouth, land deeds and plant maps, to name a few.

Gaylord Plummer, the Dane County Real Estate Officer, said he has looked at maps, read reports and even traveled to the University of Wisconsin’s Map Library in Science Hall to try to discover if the cemeteries are on the land. He said he believed he would be able to tell better if he looked at the aerial maps held in the library. Plummer said the graves had small headstones until the mid 1950s when they were removed.

“I might be able to see the headstones from the map,” Plummer said.

Wisniewski said maps are being examined.

“We’ve looked at geological survey maps and so far we’ve only been able to determine two sites. We will not be selling any parcel with graves,” Wisniewski said.

Plummer said they are doing everything possible to see if the cemeteries exist, and that archeologists will be called in if needed.

“Right now I’m just trying to figure if there are any other [burial] sites on the land,” Plummer said.

According to Wisniewski, there is no specific date when the project will be completed. She said they are doing everything they can to work on it as fast as possible.

The research on the land is done in order to figure out if it can be sold, but Wisniewski said that before the land can actually be sold it must also be approved in the budget by the County Board and the County Executive Kathleen Faulk. The budget will most likely be approved by Thanksgiving and the land will be sold in the spring of 2004. She added that is too early to have interested buyers.

The plot of land is valued at about $300,000, and Wisniewski said if the plot cannot be sold the county has no plans as to where that budget money would come from.

“Budgets are always give and take in different areas. $300,000 means we’ll have to raise revenues or cut back on services,” Wisniewski said.

Plummer said before the land is sold it would have to be approved in the budget, then the market for municipal land, then for public land and in the end the county board would have to approve any sell.

“Selling is just a proposal to create approximate $300,000 revenue,” Plummer said.