Princeton Cemetery Commission
Meeting – Monday April 22, 2013
Town Hall Annex
Minutes
May 12, 2013
Present: Lou Trostel, Lynne Grettum, Paul Constantino, Bruce Rollins and a visitor, Peter Rotando West Boylston Cemetery Trustee
The meeting was convened at 7:03 pm
The minutes of the February meeting were approved.
There was no meeting in March due to a lack of a quorum.
Articles for Town Meeting Warrant
The first article is a transfer of $17k from Cemetery Receipts Account to Maintenance Account to improve the road in North Cemetery, purchase metal lot markers to mark the corners of each lot for all the cemeteries, rebuild the gate at West Cemetery, and purchase loam, seed and regrade the ’56 & ’86 sections of Woodlawn Cemetery.
The second article to raise and appropriate $2.5k to repair, restore and upgrade the ’96 Cemetery truck should be withdrawn as the repairs have been done by the Highway Department at their expense.
Superintendent’s Report
Bruce reported that he began the annual Spring cleanup of the cemeteries a week to 10 days ago. Cleanup has been done in Woodlawn and partially in South cemeteries.
There was 1 burial in North Cemetery since our last meeting. A problem occurred because of a mismarked grave but was solved by moving 2 other graves a short distance.
West Boylston Cemetery Operations Review
We had invited Peter Rotando from West Boylston to give us insight into how they manage their cemetery which he did with a lot of background knowledge in considerable helpful detail.
Peter feels good forward planning is very necessary.
They are open year round with plowing in the winter. A 900 space expansion of their cemetery is coming which should take care of their needs for an estimated 20 years. This will cost several thousand dollars that will come from their Perpetual Care Fund.
They operate with a full time superintendent at 34 hours a week year round plus part time assistants for their 16 acres of cemetery space.
He expects pet restrictions are coming as daily pet walkers are a problem.
He kindly left us with two pages of suggestions and planning tips as well as an inventory page of the equipment they own and operate.
Other agenda items
We agreed to postpone discussion of the other items on the agenda as our good review with Peter had taken up our evening.
Paul requested we try meeting at 6 pm next month which we agreed to try.
Next month’s meeting – Our next meeting is scheduled for May 13 at 6 pm
Meeting was adjourned at 8:40 PM
L J Trostel Jr, Secretary/Chairman
Pccminutes042213
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