Local resident volunteers to clean and repair cemetery headstones in Vassalboro

by Mary Grow

At their May 18 meeting, Vassalboro selectmen met resident Jody Kundreskas, who has volunteered to donate her labor and some of the materials to clean and repair old headstones in Vassalboro cemeteries.

Selectmen accepted her offers with pleasure.

Kundreskas said last summer she attended a workshop on proper cleaning and repair techniques; she is insured; and she knows other restorers who can advise as needed. Town Manager Mary Sabins offered the services of the Public Works Department if heavy lifting is required.

Vassalboro’s 27 cemeteries would provide “more than a lifetime of work for me,” Kundreskas said. She plans to start with a single-stone cemetery near her house.

Cemetery Committee Chairman Jane Auidi said there are legal requirements for working on headstones. She believes an annual legal notice in the spring, before work starts, will meet the requirements.

Auidi also reported the cemetery committee plans to use the rest of the Cross Hill cemetery account to finish surveying and laying out plots in the new section of the cemetery.

In other business, Road Commissioner Eugene Field shared results of a traffic speed survey on Church Hill Road early in May. Board Chairman Lauchlin Titus summarized: “Eighty percent of them were going way too fast.”

The road has a 35-mile-an-hour speed limit. Of a total of 1,819 vehicles recorded, 379 were driving within the limit. The highest speed recorded was 67 miles an hour. Selectmen decided they cannot approve Beth Morse’s request for a designated handicapped parking space in front of Hairbuilders on Oak Grove Road, because there is not enough room for the space without extending it into the road.

Sabins plans to discuss with Morse alternative ways to provide safe access to her business for people with canes, walkers or wheelchairs.

Selectmen signed a Spirit of America award certificate to the late Jim Mitchell, to be presented to his widow, Libby Mitchell, at the June 5 town meeting.

They approved a catering permit to allow serving liquor at a June 3 wedding in North Vassalboro.

The next regular selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, June 1.