Town of Chichester
Cemetery Trustees’ meeting
August 7, 2023
The Cemetery Trustees' meeting was held August 7, 2023 @ 11:45 a.m. at the Chichester Historical Society building. Ruth Hammen, Fred Shaw and Brenda Boswak were in attendance.
OLD BUSINESS
Ruthie contacted the Town Administrator, Jodi, to request an updated balance for the 2023 cemetery budget. After careful review, corrections were suggested by Ruthie and the account was updated accordingly.
NEW BUSINESS
The main gate at Pineground Cemetery has been leveled and reset so that it closes properly. The work was done by Riel Fence Company of Barnstead, NH. Kevin Riel also completed work on the iron rails to reattach and secure the sections that had separated. Kevin Riel reset and leveled the granite gate posts at Brown Cemetery, Knowlton-Edgerly Cemetery and Morrill Cemetery, in preparation for attaching new iron gates. His invoices were paid using the F. Brown Trust fund and the monetary donation from Martha Dodge Wilkerson.
Don Cotnoir, NH Monuments (https://www.nhmonuments.com) submitted his invoice for gravestone restoration for the 2023 season. He restored four gravestones at Pineground Cemetery, four gravestones at Knowlton-Edgerly Cemetery, five gravestones including cleaning and repairing the large J.M. Leavitt monument at Leavitt Cemetery. All these gravestones have been in extremely poor, deteriorated condition for a long time. We are very pleased with his respect and care for these precious gravestones, his restoration work and attention to detail as well as the time he has donated cleaning additional gravestones at no cost to us. His invoices were paid using the J.M. Leavitt Trust fund, the 2023 cemetery budget money, and the Cemetery Capital Reserve fund.
Our goal over the last three years for gravestone restoration has been to prioritize the cleaning and repair of damaged military veterans’ and spouses’ gravestones, prominent Chichester residents’ gravestones, highly visible gravestones, and children gravestones in several cemeteries in town. We have accomplished restoring 25 gravestones so far. There are approximately 50 more gravestones needing restoration attention in some way.
We encourage you to view the progress on our website www.chicemcom.org and /or take a moment to view them while visiting our town cemeteries.
These gravestones are beautiful works of art!
The meeting was adjourned at 1:45 p.m.
Respectfully submitted, Brenda Boswak, Cemetery Trustee, Secretary