When the use and care of a private burial ground has been abandoned and such ground becomes unsightly from any cause, or when headstones or monuments have been displaced, the selectboard or board of cemetery commissioners having charge of the public cemeteries in the town where such burial ground is located, on written request of three legally qualified voters of such town, shall forthwith cause a notice to be published once a week on the same day of the week for three successive weeks in some newspaper circulating therein, calling upon any person interested in such burial ground to cause the same to be put in proper condition within three months from the date of such notice. At the expiration of such time, if such demand is not complied with, the selectboard or board shall proceed then and thereafter as if such ground were a public burial place. (Amended 1989, No. 142 (Adj. Sess.), § 9.)