LIVERMORE — The Cemetery Committee met with veterans’ advocate Don Simoneau on Wednesday night to see if the town is doing what is required in caring for veterans’ graves under a new law passed by the state Legislature this year.

They were assured that the town was doing a good job, town Administrative Assistant Kurt Schaub said.

Livermore has more than 25 cemeteries and spends $21,900 to maintain them.

“The towns around here do a good job,” Simoneau of Fayette said Thursday. “Locally, we’re fine.”

The new law, LD 274, An Act To Preserve and Protect Ancient Burial Grounds and Burial Grounds in Which Veterans Are Buried, regulates the care of graves of veterans in public burial grounds and any private burial grounds created before 1880, Simoneau said.

Under the law, the municipality in which that burial ground is located is required to keep the grave, headstone, monument or marker designating the burial place of any veteran of the armed forces of the U.S. in good condition from May 1 to Sept. 30 of each year.

Municipalities are required to make the grave site level if it has sunk 3 or more inches compared to the surrounding ground. They must also maintain the proper height and orientation, both vertical and horizontal, of the headstone, monument or marker.

Towns also have to ensure that inscriptions on the headstone, monument or marker are visible and legible and that the average height of grass at the grave site is between 1.5 to 2.5 inches but no more than 3 inches.

Flat grave markers need to be kept free of grass and debris, and the burial place needs to be kept free of fallen trees, branches, vines and weeds.

The law also requires that every veteran have a flag and marker, Simoneau said.

Schaub said the town is seeking bids to remove 12 or so pine trees from the top of a hill in the Lakeside Cemetery off Route 4 and near Brettuns Pond.

“It is a potential future hazard,” he said.

The Cemetery Committee wants to get the large trees out of the cemetery as much as they can to minimize future problems, he said.

The cemetery is the town’s largest.

The money for the project will come out of a reserve account dedicated to non-budgeted special projects.

If the tree-removal bids are more than what is in the account, the project will have to be put on hold until the funding is found, Schaub said.

The trees have been marked and the goal is to get them removed when the ground is frozen, he said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link