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Gilmanton trustees review maintenance projects, access easements and budget plans; ask Selectmen to hold hearing on abandoned burial grounds
Summary
Trustees reviewed site reports across town cemeteries, approved several small projects awaiting contractors (including a $5,005 Durrell post project and a $1,650 Hillside parking repair), discussed deeded access easements, and agreed to ask the Selectmen to hold a hearing to declare six burial grounds abandoned. They also approved minutes and adjourned (both votes 3-0).
GILMANTON, N.H. — At their June 16 meeting, the Trustees of Cemeteries reviewed maintenance, mapping and volunteer activity across town-owned cemeteries, discussed next steps for access easements and abandoned burial grounds, and reviewed budget reporting and a new expendable trust fund seeded by grave sales.
Trustees received site updates across multiple cemeteries. An abutter at Besse notified trustees that he will trim lilac bushes and will comply with a required 25-foot setback from cemetery walls. Trustees noted a completed ownership transfer for two lots at Buzzell cemetery (John to Jane Weeks) and that staff will layout new graves when scheduled. In Copp, JR Stockwell reported setting new veteran markers and working with a vendor on replacement gravestones or blanks for shattered stones.
A $5,005 project to install nine granite posts with turnbuckles at Durrell cemetery was reported as approved and awaiting contractor scheduling. Trustees also approved a $1,650 parking-area repair for Hillside and said they would request a deeded easement for the parking area. Volunteers and the Gilmanton Gravestone Cleaners were reported to be working in Hillside; two new volunteers and one community-service participant were trained this season.
Trustee Candace Daigle proposed asking the Selectmen to hold a second public hearing to declare six burial grounds abandoned (Ayers, Durrell, Foster, Indian, Town Farm and Weed), noting these sites were not included in a 2004 review because they were then unknown to the town. Trustees agreed and Daigle said she will contact the Selectmen to schedule the hearing. Mr. Stoddard offered assistance with research on the sites, and Trustee Cailyn Fillion said she has begun research for a Historical Society history walk planned later this year.
Trustees reviewed budget materials: completed 2025 year-end cemetery reports and 2026 budget lines, which were reported to be within projections. Trustees noted that income from upcoming grave sales will seed a new expendable trust fund established at the 2026 Town Meeting; $100 from each sale will be deposited into the fund to support maintenance of town-owned or managed sites. Suggestions for the 2027 appropriation included wage increases for the sexton and groundskeeper, establishment of estimated clerk hours for trustees duties, and increased office and software supplies.
Administrative items included updates on broken links following the town website platform move and interest in survey-grade drone aerial mapping to tie digital grave locations to web-based burial records. Trustees also discussed an unresolved search for two veteran gravestones once thought to be on Geddes property but now believed to be in neighboring Barnstead.
On motions recorded in the minutes, the board unanimously accepted the May 19 minutes and later voted unanimously to adjourn at 8 p.m. The next regular trustees meeting is scheduled for July 21.
