Cemetery Trustees’ meeting
January 6, 2025
On January 6, 2025, the Cemetery Trustees met at 9:00 am. at the Historical Society building with Ruthe Hammen, Fred Shaw and Brenda Boswak in attendance.
OLD BUSINESS
The gates at Leavitt Cemetery and Pineground Cemetery were closed for the winter season today due to an impending heavy rain snow/sleet storm forecast for this week. The Wreaths Across America Day event planned for Saturday will require numerous visitors to the cemeteries which could result in vehicles damaging the grounds if left open to vehicular traffic. Our successful fourth year of participating in the national Wreaths Across America Day event took place on Saturday December 14, 2024, at Veterans’ Memorial Park at noontime. It was a sunny, cold, windy day, with 50+/- attendees at the noon time ceremony. Command Sergeant Major (Ret.) Frank Swirko carried out the role of Master of Ceremonies, once again this year, with solemn honor, attention to detail and thoughtfulness. He spoke words of recognition for Staff Sergeant, Edward John Wladkowski who served in the U.S. Army WWII, with the 80th Ordnance Battalion, in England, Normandy, France; Belgium (Battle of the Bulge): Rhineland Germany. Chichester’s 219 veterans’ gravesites each received a Remembrance Wreath placed by a volunteer. We are very pleased with the support and participation in the event.
Ruthie and Brenda attended the Department Head meeting with the Board of Selectmen on December 3, 2024. We have decided to attend this monthly meeting to keep the Board of Selectmen informed on a regular basis of our activities, needs and concerns.
Brenda attended the December 10, 2024, Selectmen/Budget Committee meeting to submit information detailing the gravestone restoration, cemetery repairs, gate installation and the proposed tree removal and gravestone restoration work for the 2025 season. The removal of dead dangerous Ash trees at the True Cemetery and Knowlton-Edgerly Cemetery is a priority for the 2025 season. We have received an estimate from Extol Tree Care, LLC, Joseph Beachy, for the work in the amount of $7,600. We are requesting a 2025 budget line for Tree Removal in the amount of $6,000. Selectmen Steve MacCleery requested the Cemetery Trustees to review the possibility of using the Cemetery Capital Reserve Fund for some/all this expense and report back to the Board of Selectmen and Budget Committee. We are requesting $7,000 for 2025 Cemetery maintenance.
Page Cemetery will be a priority for 2025. There will be a small increase in the expense for mowing /groundskeeping for 2025. Hodgkins Painting and Maintenance has not increased its price in several years.
NEW BUSINESS
We discussed using some/all the Cemetery Capital Reserve Fund to pay for the expense of removing dead, dangerous trees at True Cemetery and Knowlton-Edgerly Cemetery, as requested by the Board of Selectmen. Our conclusion is to retain the $12,000+/- in Cemetery Capital Reserve Fund in the event of vandalism or emergency tree removal/cleanup and proceed with our original request for $6,000 line-item Tree Removal for the 2025 budget. The extensively damaged gravestones that we have repaired in the last few years have cost an average of $1500 per gravestone. When vandalism occurs, it generally includes numerous gravestones. We reflected on the Union Leader newspaper article of the last recorded vandalism in Chichester at Knowlton-Edgerly Cemetery in 1992. That event alone targeted approximately a dozen gravestones, all extensively broken. All but one of the gravestones had been left unrestored until 2020. We are slowly but surely making progress in restoring neglected and damaged gravestones and fencing/stonewalls in Chichester’s cemeteries to bring them to a well maintained, beautiful, safe, condition that demonstrates our town residents remember and honor its predecessors.
Fred and Ruthie will submit the report to the Trustees of the Trust Funds for reimbursement to the Town of Chichester for cemetery maintenance expenses paid related to Hodgkins Painting and Maintenance.
Brenda will draft a Cemetery Yearly Report for the Town report. The deadline for submission is January 24, 2025. A donation for Wreaths Across America is still unprocessed due to the donor submitting a check to the Town of Chichester at the town office after the deadline. Brenda has left phone messages requesting the donor’s wishes, with no response. We will request the Town of Chichester issue a check to Wreaths Across America and Brenda will submit the donation to be credited to the 2025 event.
erry Bros. Monuments notified Ruthie of a purchase of a gravestone by Paul McGuire for placement in Leavitt Cemetery in the spring.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:05 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Brenda Boswak, Cemetery Trustee, Secretary