Maintenance Problems Plague Cemeteries

CHATHAM – A lack of staff and proper equipment is impacting the town’s ability to maintain its cemeteries, according to members of the cemetery commission.

 Even though money was appropriated for personnel and equipment dedicated to the cemetery department, contractors had to be hired to cut grass and perform other maintenance at cemeteries because the staff hasn’t been hired, commissioners told the select board last week.

 “It went to town meeting, it passed, it was in the budget, but we never got it,” said commission member William Bystrom. The commission had just one response to a request for contractors to mow the cemetery lawns last year, but the contractor lacked the ability to mow the grass in a consistent manner. “So part of the cemetery is always going to look shabby,” he said.

 The town has four active cemeteries — Seaside, Union, People's and South Chatham — and 11 that are inactive and considered historical; all have to be maintained to one extent or another.

 At times cemetery commissioners have done maintenance work themselves, trimming vegetation and picking up trash and debris. Commissioner Peter Gaines, whose home overlooks Seaside Cemetery, said that maintenance has been “sporadic.” At times only a portion of the grass would be cut. “It just got to the point where it looked terrible,” he said.

 A few relatives of those buried in the cemeteries have complained about the lack of maintenance. “It’s hard to respond to situations like that,” Gaines said, especially since a perpetual maintenance fee is included in the cost of cemetery plots.

 Chair David Whitcomb said the cemetery’s perpetual care fund totals $540,000, but the commissioners have been told that only a small portion of that can be used annually. He asked the select board to clarify how much of the fund can be used to maintain the cemeteries.

 “It makes no sense to have that much money sitting in a bank when the care of the cemeteries is needed now,” he said.

 The past several years has been a period of transition for the cemetery department, Whitcomb said. It was transferred from the park department to the department of public works — which has had three different directors in recent years — and it has been relocated to four different offices and lost its longtime administrator.

 “For a long time, because there was no central locus for the cemetery department, information was carried from place to place in shoeboxes,” Bystrom said.

 While the administrative side of the department now has an office at the Crowell Road DPW and a full-time administrator, the maintenance side remains inadequate, the commissioners said.

 In 2022, funds were approved as part of the DPW budget to hire three full-time staff members to work with both the park and cemetery departments, with one ideally slated to be a foreman in charge of cemetery maintenance, Bystrom said. In 2023, $165,000 was included in the capital budget for equipment to be shared by the cemetery and park departments, Whitcomb added. A pickup truck and mower were purchased, but he questioned if the equipment met the criteria for use in the cemeteries, which is unique because of the need to mow around gravestones.

 Whitcomb noted that the DPW is the town’s largest department; under its umbrella are the water and sewer, park and recreation, beaches, highway and transfer station operations — and cemeteries.

 “As good a job as they’re doing,” Whitcomb said, “cemeteries sometimes falls between the cracks.”

 There’s no excuse for not maintaining cemeteries, said Select Board member and cemetery commission liaison Jeff Dykens.

 “We need to support this commission, and we need to improve cemeteries and take care of them,” he said. “We should be proud of our cemeteries.”

 Board member Dean Nicastro said the extent to which perpetual care funds can be used for annual maintenance needs to be explored further.

 “People pay that with the expectation the town is going to take care of the grounds,” he said.

 Commissioners have been told that no one is applying for the maintenance positions. “That isn’t good enough any more,” Whitcomb said. He suggested the salaries or benefits might have to be increased to attract applicants. “Just saying we’re the same as every town isn’t working,” he said. Continuing to use contracted labor isn’t getting the job done and will likely cost more in the long run, he added.

 With the formulation of next year’s budget just beginning, the cemetery issues will get a higher profile, select board chair Michael Schell assured the commissioners.