Princeton Cemetery Commission
Meeting – Monday May 18, 2015
Town Hall Annex
Minutes
June 11, 2015
Present: Lou Trostel, Lynne Grettum, Ron Milenski, Paul Constantino, Andy Brown plus two citizens
Meeting Commenced –7:02 pm in the Annex
April Meeting’s Minutes
The minutes of the April meeting taken by Ron Milenski were approved as written.
Cemetery Operations
Lot Sales – 3 lots were sold: 1 full burial lot and 2 cremation lots.
Burials – There were 2 burials: 1 full burial and 1 cremation. There are 2 full and 3 cremation burials scheduled.
FY’15 budget – Remaining funds will be adequate to cover operations for the balance of this FY’15 year.
Memorial Day
The cemeteries are in good shape for Memorial Day. The status of the flags to mark the veteran’s graves is unclear. The flags have been ordered. Exactly who is in charge of this program is unclear. Lynne will check out who is “it”.
Employee Items
Bruce Rollins and Denis Coughlin both have resigned.
Our new woman employee took over the work very well and is putting in up to 40 hours/week. She will be on board through November.
We would like to hire another worker for up to 20 hours per week.
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We had 4 prisoners for 4 days raking, trimming and raising several fallen gravestones. We would hope to use this source of help in the future. Andy will write the Sheriff and thank him for this good work crew.
New Lawn Mower
The purchase of a new lawn mower was approved at the Town Meeting.
Lot Decoration Rules and Regulations
We have a number of rules restricting decorations individuals may put on their grave sites such as no plastic flowers. The Superintendent has been removing nonconforming decorations as in the past. This makes it much easier to mow and trim. He has contacted families about bigger nonconforming decoration such as bushes and trees.
The two citizens, with 7 lots, visiting the meeting were concerned about what decorations were allowed and where.
We concluded we need improved good guidelines and we should develop them this year
Such might include items as - no lights, figurines or shrubs, no artificial plastic flowers, restricting the plantings to a square foot or so in front of the stone.
We should look at working up some preliminary wording at our next meeting.
Improvements
Quotes have been received for the excavation-cleaning up work in the front left corner of North Cemetery.
We should keep the Selectmen informed about this work
One approach to increase the amount of plantings improvements we can achieve within our budget restraints is to seek donations of trees and shrubs...
The Superintendent is looking at planting “100-year” trees in our improvement work
Reclaiming Abandoned Lots
The regulations say lots unused for 75 yr=ears can be considered for reclaiming by the Town. Lynne is considering what kind of investigation we need to do to confirm the owners after 75 years have truly abandoned their unused lots.
One approach would be to run an ad in the newspaper announcing the several lots being considered.
Woodlawn Establishment Date
According to research by Joyce Anderson, Woodlawn Cemetery was established in 1852.
Next meeting
The next meeting of the Cemetery Commission is scheduled for Monday June 15, 2015.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:38 PM
L J Trostel Jr, Secretary/Chairman
Pccminutes051815
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