Vassalboro cemetery committee discusses prioritizing work

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Cemetery Committee members spent much of their July 21 meeting discussing David Jenney’s proposal to prioritize work in the town’s more than two dozen cemeteries. They reached a preliminary agreement: do the ones with the most graves and the least recent repairs and maintenance first, with exceptions when justified.

The work they discussed includes removing trees, a controversial topic in the past. Committee members like trees; they do not appreciate trees that drop branches or fall down in a storm and damage gravestones that are important family memorials.

Jenney explained that thanks to a database committee chairman Savannah Clark helped compile, committee members have a list of 5,186 graves in Vassalboro cemeteries (a number subject to change as forgotten old graves are rediscovered and new burials take place). The database shows that Union Cemetery, on Holman Day Road, is the largest not recently worked on.

Union Cemetery has 599 graves, and, Jenney commented, a lot of trees. It will be less attractive without most of the trees; but if they remain, there will be more broken stones. He expects work there to be “interesting.”

Committee members tentatively put Union high on their work list, and other larger ones next, plus any small ones – Jenney said some have only two or three known graves – that have trees that pose immediate hazards. They plan to continue the discussion at their August meeting.

Committee member Jody Kundreskas reported on work done in July in the North Vassalboro cemetery with out-of-town expert stone repairer Joseph Ferrannini, from Hoosick Falls, New York. Sixteen stones, some very heavy, some fragile, were restored, she said.

Pro Tree Service, of Vassalboro, won the bid to cut trees in Farwell-Brown and Nelson cemeteries. Select board members awarded the bid June 26, and the work was done the following Monday, Clark said. Jenney was impressed with the quality of the work; a slate stone very close to one tree was undamaged, he said.

The Vassalboro Public Works crew fixed an erosion problem at the East Vassalboro cemetery. Clark said resident Simone Antworth, whose family plot was affected, sent a note of appreciation.

The other main topic July 21 was a discussion with resident Donald Breton, who has taken on the responsibility of putting flags on veterans’ graves before Memorial Day and removing them afterwards.

Breton promised committee members a copy of his list of known veterans’ graves. Putting out flags in 15 cemeteries takes him about four hours and requires about 30 miles’ driving, he said. He enjoys doing it.

Clark offered committee members’ help should Breton get tired of doing the job alone.

The Town of Vassalboro is responsible for flags on veterans’ graves. Money for them is in the town budget.

Cemetery committee members scheduled their next regular meeting for 6 p.m., Monday, Aug. 18.