Vassalboro cemetery committee talks about fiscal year

by Mary Grow

At a short Feb. 24 meeting, Vassalboro Cemetery Committee members talked about plans for the rest of the current fiscal year and the new one beginning July 1, and about the lack of information about the past.

Chairman Savannah Clark said in December 2024, the select board authorized waiving the town procurement policy so the committee can again hire expert stone restorer Joseph Ferrannini to work in town cemeteries in the summer.

Town Manager Aaron Miller is preparing RFPs (Requests for Proposals) for two other projects, Clark said. One is hiring someone to remove dangerous trees in Farwell-Brown and Nelson cemeteries this spring; the other is hiring an arborist to assess trees in multiple town cemeteries, as a basis for an ongoing management plan.

Vassalboro select board members are reviewing the proposed 2025-26 town budget. Clark said they seem to be supportive of the committee’s request, which totaled $48,050 (the same as the current year’s budget) as of the Feb. 20 select board meeting.

The select board’s recommended budget will be reviewed by the budget committee, whose members make their own recommendations. Voters at the annual town meeting Monday evening, June 2, will make final decisions on expenditures.

Committee member David Jenney said he wished more information was available on the history of Vassalboro’s more than two dozen cemeteries. He would like to know, for example, when each was laid out and by whom and what plan the organizer(s) had in mind.

Jenney said he has some information on Cross Hill Cemetery, and old town reports are sometimes helpful. Vassalboro Historical Society records were mentioned as another resource.

Cemetery Committee members scheduled their next meeting for Monday evening, March 17.