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Canaan trustees seek relief from state demand to itemize cemetery plots
Summary
Trustees say a new New Hampshire Attorney General request to label cemetery funds as perpetual care or maintenance is impractical for older town records; they will seek a meeting with the AG’s office and still submit state reports in good faith while verifying an unexpected wage spike.
Canaan’s Trustees of the Trust Fund on Feb. 18 discussed a recent New Hampshire Attorney General office request that towns itemize cemetery plots and classify related funds as either perpetual care or maintenance, a requirement trustees and the town lawyer said may be impractical for communities with long, incomplete records. Cindy Neily, Trustee, summarized a Jan. 31 meeting with the town lawyer, Shawn Tanguay, who advised seeking relief from the AG because many towns cannot fully recreate historic burial and funding records.
The trustees decided to request a convening with the Attorney General’s office and noted that Neily plans to raise the issue with the town’s state congressional representative during his open hours on Feb. 23. Following the lawyer’s recommendation, the trustees also agreed to submit the MS‑9 and MS‑10 reports to the state “as is” to show good faith, even though the filings may be rejected for the perpetual care versus maintenance classification. The clerk’s account on the state portal required a password reset; Neily will either upload the reports herself or share the new password with Trustee Nick Lavalley to complete the submission.
Trustees also flagged a sharp rise in cemetery wage expenditures for 2025: town records show wages of $30,866 for cemetery work, roughly double the prior year and more than twice the 2021–2024 running average. Trustee Nick Lavalley will confirm that figure with the town finance director before trustees take further action. The trustees framed the outreach to the Attorney General’s office and the state representative as the next procedural steps.
The trustees scheduled their next meeting for March 18, 2026, at 5 p.m. at Canaan Town Hall.
