PARIS — Selectmen got an earful Monday from people for and against cutting off a section of the Cornwall Nature Preserve for the adjacent Hillside Cemetery.
The board tabled a proposal to set a public hearing on the issue. Members voted unanimously to have Town Manager Phil Tarr ask the town’s attorney whether transferring the land to the Hillside Cemetery foundation was legally possible.
Selectman Jean Smart said that before the board sets a public hearing, they should know that such a transference would be possible. Selectman Ted Kurtz agreed. “I just want to be told we’re not on a fool’s errand,” he said.
The question is whether to give a 1.13-acre section on the edge of the nature preserve to the adjacent cemetery. The historical cemetery is running out of space, and William Burmeister, president of the Hillside Cemetery Association, has requested the land so the cemetery can sell more plots and pay for the cemetery’s upkeep.
However, a deed from Alice Cornwall, who left the nature preserve to the town, may not allow such a transference due to prohibitions against subdivision in her deed to the town.
Buried there, among others, are Hannibal Hamlin’s family and Alice Cornwall. If the cemetery can’t sustain itself, it would have to ask the town for funding, according to Steve Heikkenen, a member of the cemetery’s foundation who was at Monday’s meeting.
Joan Moorehead said she was a friend of Cornwall’s, and said Cornwall’s heart wasn’t so much in conservation as it was “getting even with the Paris Hill Country Club.”
“They didn’t call her, so she got ticked off,” Moorehead said.
Several spoke up against transferring the land, and others suggested the cemetery association pay the town’s legal fees in investigating the feasibility of transferring the land. Jack Richardson said the town should consider selling the land to the cemetery.
“That land is a very valuable commodity,” Richardson said.
Calvin Woodworth said any plan to transfer the land is “out of the question, if you read the deed.”
Franca Ainsworth, who chairs the Conservation Committee, said there are too many unknowns, including how hearses and cutting equipment would access a new section, which would be behind the current cemetery.
“All this stuff has never been discussed,” Ainsworth said.
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