LIVERMORE — Resident Peter Stokes spoke with Selectpersons Tuesday night, June 21, about concerns he had with town cemeteries and firemen’s pay.
Stokes was appointed to the Cemetery Committee in May 2021. When Selectpersons discussed mowing of the cemeteries at the meeting following his appointment, Stokes noted the history to be found and asked about cutting bushes, removing rubbish, mowing around flowers and the roads.
Many gravesites have flags placed indicating a veteran is buried there but there is no marker — is there a way to get some foot plaques for them, Stokes asked Tuesday. “Somehow somebody needs to be able to identify who is in those graves,” he said.
Donald Simoneau went out, found and marked all the veteran graves in the area, Selectperson Scott Richmond said. “I believe Jim Manter has the list now, he has kind of taken over for Don,” he noted.
If the town would approve, foot plaques with names on them could be obtained, Stokes said.
“I think that is a good idea,” Richmond said.
When he weed wacks, Stokes said he tells himself he wished he knew who was buried there.
“The military pays for the markers,” Selectperson Jeremy Emerson said.
“The federal government has money for everything,” Stokes said. “These gravesites, there is Civil War people here. These are historic gravesites and I just wondered if we could get some federal money to help us out.”
Administrative Assistant Aaron Miller said he would check into it with his contacts then follow up with Stokes. He asked what a foot plaque was.
“For a lot of veterans, you don’t get a stone,” Stokes said. “You get a plate that lays flat on the ground, it says the veteran’s name and the branch of service.”
“Are you seeing just stones, are you seeing blank stones,” Miller asked.
“Some places there’s not even a stone laying there,” Stokes said. “Some the stones are gone. I don’t want to dig to see if there’s a stone out of respect.”
“It would help to get an idea of how many of those are out there,” Miller noted.
“Some may not be veterans,” Stokes said. “Someone put a flag, so to me if they put a flag they have to have some type of information, why they are putting the flag.”
“Give me a sense of what we are talking about so I can call the congressman,” Miller said.
Are there 50, 100 – it would be good to have some idea, Selectperson Chairman Mark Chretien added.
Stokes suggested having a ceremony once the gravesites were marked.
He also expressed concern about the amount of time and money being put into the main road into Lakeside Cemetery. Stokes suggested hiring a contractor to fix it once instead of constantly patching it.
Selectperson Mark Chretien said the budget is already set and he didn’t know if there would be money to do that. He suggested getting a rough estimate from a contractor.
Stokes also asked about pay for the town’s firefighters and if more volunteers were needed.
When members go on a call they are paid $12.75 per hour, Richmond said. “Compared to other towns, we’re in pretty good shape,” he noted.
Stokes spoke of increasing the pay, given the price of gas today.
“Before I became a Selectperson, the board wanted to pay us more and we voted as a department we didn’t want more money because we didn’t want people to do it for the money,” Richmond said. “We didn’t want people coming in saying, “We can make some extra change here.””
Stokes suggested providing gas vouchers to those answering calls, “out of gratitude for the fact you guys are doing this when times are really tough.
“I just feel bad. Times are bad and everybody is reaching into their pockets.”
In other business, Miller told Selectpersons the office would close at noon June 30 to close out the books for the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
Following an executive session Brian Lee was hired as a highway driver to replace Dan Boothby who retired.
Lee worked for the town last year, left and has returned, Miller said after the meeting.
Lee will be paid $21 per hour and receive two weeks vacation, he noted.
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