Town of Chichester
Cemetery Trustees’ meeting
December 4, 2023
The Cemetery Trustees' meeting was held December 4, 2023 @ 9:00 at the Historical Society building with Fred Shaw and Brenda Boswak in attendance.
OLD BUSINESS
We had a brief discussion and update on the Wreaths Across America Day event scheduled for December 16, 2023. Fred and Brenda talked about creating a printed program for Wreath Day. Fred created a template and Brenda will work on that, if time allows. Frank Swirko will be the Master of Ceremonies for this year, and we have six of the eight ceremony volunteers needed. We are nearly at our goal of 218 Remembrance Wreaths.
NEW BUSINESS
Garry Kalajian of 'Ararat Forge’ in Bradford, NH joined us today. He is a blacksmith and met with us to discuss the possibility of him creating cemetery gates for us. We gave him photos of each cemetery gate opening and our gate design ideas and the location map of each cemetery. We showed him the style of the Batchelder Cemetery gate as a sample of what is already in town. We requested a design that will swing into the cemetery and talked about Garry creating a design, in keeping with the period of the cemeteries. He is going to visit each cemetery and sketch some design options and prepare an estimate for our March 2024 meeting. He is a busy guy, does a lot of apprentice/teaching workshops. He is a true craftsman.
Brenda and Ruthie plan to attend the Budget Advisory Committee Meeting on December 13, 2023, to explain our request for the warrant article for the town to assume ownership of Hook Cemetery. We have asked for a budget of $7,000 for 2024 to continue the restoration of gravestones. There are at least 40 more stones in need of repair. We are also requesting a $6,000 budget line item for 2024 tree removal at the cemeteries.
Meeting adjourned at 11:00 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Brenda Boswak, Cemetery Trustee, Secretary