Hey, Answer Girl --

When a person is cremated and nobody claims or pays for the cremains, what happens to the ashes?

JL in Casper

What happens to cremains really depends on the funeral home, but Bustard's Funeral Home and Crematory in town keeps the ashes until someone picks them up, according to funeral director William Watkins.

Right now, the funeral home is holding on to ashes that date all the way back to 1981 -- those ashes are older than I am!

They also have some from 1984 and '86, so ashes being left behind is a bit more common than I expected it to be.

Some funeral homes may be authorized to scatter the ashes or have them buried if no one picks them up.

"With litigation the way it is nowadays, we hold them until someone comes," Watkins said. "Better to be safe than sorry."

Hey, Answer Girl --

A few days ago, I drove through about five miles of new highway refurbishing between Shoshoni and Riverton. The center line was loaded with those cute little yellow rubber flappers. Who is responsible for insisting on this obvious waste of money?

-- Ron M.

Those cute little rubber things -- called reflector tabs -- are an added safety measure on newly constructed or paved roads at night, so that people who are using the road in the dark will know for sure where the center line is.

Like most road projects in Wyoming, this is a Wyoming Department of Transportation stipulation.

Jeff Goetz, public information specialist for WYDOT District 2, said the tabs have adhesive that sticks to the asphalt, which is not meant to be permanent. Usually, the snow plows are responsible for their demise, once winter comes around.

"In the dark -- especially in Wyoming, where it's so dark at night -- anything that helps people be safer is necessary," Goetz said.

Luckily, these reflectors are made of rubbery plastic, so they're not very expensive, and they're purchased in bulk, which makes them even less expensive. In the grand scheme of redoing a road, they're a pretty tiny cost.

When added to delineator posts on the sides of the road (those are the reflectors on poles), the tabs make roads easier to navigate at night.

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Answer Girl tackles questions about Casper, the universe and everything else. Submit your questions by e-mail to megan.lee@trib.com, or call Megan Lee at (307) 266-0616. Write to Answer Girl, Box 80, Casper, 82602. Visit the AnswerLabs Blog Place at tribtown.trib.com.