Veterans Committee backs order for annual report on city cemeteries, requests spending rules and tracking

Marlborough City’s Veterans Committee voted to recommend approval of Order No. 25-109345 on Jan. 13, 2025, directing the mayor to submit an annual report on the condition, needs and finances of city-owned cemeteries, including a specific inventory of veterans’ gravestones and plans for repairs and maintenance.

The committee said the report should be delivered to the City Council by April 1 each year and include the state of good repair for veterans’ gravestones, what work was completed in the prior fiscal year, planned work for the next fiscal year, and a financial accounting including perpetual care trust fund balances and interest usage. The motion to recommend approval passed unanimously at the committee meeting after members added language asking the administration to produce written guidelines for spending perpetual care funds and to track applications and replacements of veterans’ markers through the VA program.

Commissioner Scott, who oversees the Department of Public Works (DPW) Forestry, Parks and Cemeteries division, told the committee the division combines forestry, parks and cemetery services under a single budget and foreman. “There is no cemetery budget,” Commissioner Scott…