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Council weighs buying equipment or renting services after cemetery work proved inefficient; clerk proposes raising opening/closing fee
Summary
Officials discussed buying a 36-inch bucket ($1,800) or renting/buying a dump trailer (used ~ $10,000) to improve grave-digging operations; Speaker 1 suggested raising the cemetery opening/closing fee from $500 to $700 to offset costs.
Councilors reviewed recent cemetery maintenance challenges after staff and volunteers found town equipment slow and inefficient for digging graves. Speaker 1 said using a 36-inch bucket on a contractor’s backhoe made a two-and-a-half-hour job take about 35 minutes and proposed either buying a similar bucket (quoted at $1,800) or renting/ buying a dump trailer for moving spoil material.
"Our fee is $500 to open and close the grave. Ideally, I would like to take that to $700," Speaker 1 said, noting local contractors charge about $600 and that a modest fee increase could build a reserve for equipment. Council members urged checking neighboring towns’ rates before any change and agreed to revisit the cemetery budget ahead of the June budget adoption; staff was asked to survey comparable fees and return with recommendations.
Options discussed included continuing to borrow/rent equipment as needed, purchasing attachments gradually, or adding the proceeds from recent plot sales to cemetery capital. Speaker 5 confirmed $4,500 in recent cemetery plot sales would be added to the cemetery fund and discussed timing for when the money would be available for use under the town’s budget cycle.
