STRONG — Selectmen agreed Tuesday night to handle some landscaping duties at the veterans’ monument and do maintenance at the public beach this summer.
Custodian Larone Crockett will continue in his position, according to Selectman Jim Burrill, but he can’t take care of flowers because of physical limitations. He also won’t maintain the public beach on Pond Road.
The custodian’s position will be advertised for another week.
Meanwhile, Selectman Mike Pond suggested he and the other four selectmen take turns mowing the lawn and cleaning the beach, changing station and restroom. They agreed to have a rotating schedule that would include beach maintenance twice each week.
Selectmen advertised for people to do a wider range of duties than those done by the custodian, but none of the applicants met their criteria.
“We had a special meeting to go over the applicants, but we didn’t make a decision at that time,” Burrill said.
Selectman Dick Worthley suggested that he and his wife might be willing to plant flowers at the veterans’ monument if the town reimbursed her for the cost of the plants.
Worthley also reviewed bids for replacing the roof on the Village Cemetery vault. Selectmen approved C.O. Beck & Sons’ offer of $3,470.
Worthley said Deep Roots tree-cutting service is working at the Taylor Hill cemetery, finishing a job started last summer. Several large trees had begun to decay and cause damage to the gravestones.
Plans for this year’s cemetery projects started after voters approved funding for repairs and maintenance of both public and ancient private cemeteries.
At their March town meeting, voters heard that the town-owned Village Cemetery perpetual care trust had over $600,000 in investment accounts, because the trust fund’s earnings had been reinvested.
Money also continues to be raised through the sale of individual plots.
Each of the eight other private cemeteries are over 100 years old and originally were established on private family land. Although the heirs of the original owners are supposed to have responsibility for them, no documents have been found in town records.
The original cemetery committee dissolved 25 years ago and transferred $39,658 in the cemetery account to the town. Since then, selectmen have had the responsibility of maintaining all cemeteries.
The original Village Cemetery trust document also cannot be located, according to Worthley. He sought legal advice from Maine Municipal Association, but since the town did not have a way to document the history and possible limitations on use of the Village Cemetery funds, he said the decision could be made by the voters.
Each year, selectmen contract mowing and trimming in all nine cemeteries, but they learned recently they could not use those funds for repairs and maintenance of the eight ancient cemeteries without permission from voters.
The town is obligated to maintain all veterans’ graves, whether they are in public or private cemeteries.
Voters agreed in March to use a percentage of the Village Cemetery trust fund to maintain all cemeteries.
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