Cemetery Committee Meeting Minutes July 10, 2023

Present: Jody Kundreskas, Jane Aiudi, David Jenney, Russell Smith, Steve Assante, Savannah Clark

Joe, Jody, David, Steve, and others worked to repair stone pins in Methodist during the last week of June. They worked forty hours over four days and repaired sixteen stones. They focused on the ones in the front of the cemetery. They also did some other work this past Saturday infilling some stones, one of which was a veteran’s stone.

Jody learned how to drill pins herself and is willing to do so but needs some extra supplies. We would need to purchase an angle grinder for $150, multiple stainless steel rods for $30-$40 each, wet/dry vac for $246, safety glasses for around $20, screw clamps for $100, and hammer mallet for $55. Many of these items will be recurring expenses. The committee discussed purchasing these items and all agreed that it would be a good step to take because it would allow our volunteers to fix most of the damaged stones themselves and we would not have to pay someone to come in to do it. We would also need a generator, but we had a few people offer to lend theirs and we will also look to see if the town has one that we could use so we do not have to spend money on one. Jane motioned to approve spending funds on these supplies, Savannah seconded, and the rest of the committee members were also in favor of the motion.

Jane will continue to work on doing research for updating our rules. We would like to improve wording on the number of cremains allowed in a lot and the number of cremains allowed on top of full caskets. We would also like to make the language on lot ownership clearer.
We still have some more signs that we need to purchase to mark the cemeteries and we will discuss this further at a future meeting.

Jane brought up the Hometown Heroes banner project, which puts banners featuring local veterans on telephone poles around towns. She is going to look into this further.

No updates on Felicia’s work or the mowing contract at present.

Next meeting will be August 7, 2023 at 3:30pm at the Town Office.