OLD BUSINESS
February 3, 2025 @ 9:00 a.m. Fred Shaw and Brenda Boswak met at the Historical Society building.
Ruthie received the check from the town of Chichester in the amount of $105 that was a donation for Wreaths Across America 2024 from Jim Kelley. Brenda will submit the donation to Wreaths Across America for the 2025 event. J
anuary 9, 2025, the Board of Selectmen sent a letter to Scott Tepper requesting the removal of the dead tree debris at the Burying Yard cemetery.
Brenda drafted a Cemetery Yearly Report for 2024 for the town report and after review by Ruthie and Fred, submitted it to the town Administrative Assistant on January 13, 2025.
January 13, 2025, Ruthie and Brenda attended the Selectmen and Budget Committee meeting, at their request, to further discuss using the Cemetery Capital Reserve fund to offset the proposed budget request for tree removal for 2025. We presented both boards with photos and an estimate for the cost of removal of dead trees at True Cemetery and Knowlton-Edgerly Cemetery. During the discussion the Cemetery Capital Reserve fund was confirmed to have a balance of $17,000+/-. The Cemetery Trustees agreed to use $5,000 from Cemetery Capital Reserve fund and requested the 2025 budget line ‘tree removal’ be reduced to $2600. Both boards agreed to this proposal.
The Cemetery Trustees were notified of a meeting with the Selectmen requested by Scott Tepper for January 21, 2025. Brenda and Ruthie attended this meeting and provided the Selectmen with photos of the dead tree debris at the Burying Yard as well as all the correspondence between the Cemetery Trustees and Scott Tepper on this matter. There was some discussion, Scott Tepper believes the tree is not on his property. Selectmen Steve MacCleery offered to make an onsite inspection at the Burying Yard. Kristy will locate the boundary map for the cemetery from Registry of Deeds.
NEW BUSINESS
Brenda will plan to attend the Selectmen and Budget Committee public meeting tomorrow night, February 4, 2025.
Garry Kalajian, Ararat Forge, met with us to begin the discussion on gate design for the Knowlton-Edgerly Cemetery for 2025. Brenda had emailed Garry some design ideas. There is a 6’ gate opening on the Horse Corner Road side of the cemetery and a 12’ gate opening on the Lane Road side of the cemetery. The granite posts a both openings have remains of iron gate hangers still attached. We determined the 6’ gate opening would need to have two separate gates, due to the close proximity to the edge of Horse Corner Road and the steep incline immediately inside the opening. The oldest gravesite at this cemetery is 1803. Garry will work on refining a proposed design in keeping with the period of the cemetery, a cost estimate and tentatively join us at our March meeting.
Brenda will contact Riel Fence Co. about the leaning granite gate post at Pineground Cemetery which they had straightened recently. We briefly discussed painting all three gates at Pineground Cemetery. Garry suggested a product he has used on rusty gates. Brenda will research this.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:20 a.m. R
Respectfully submitted,
Brenda Boswak, Cemetery Trustee, Secretary.