WILTON — The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday unanimously awarded a three-year contract for mowing town cemeteries to Mike’s Lawn Care owned by Michael Webber of Livermore.

The contract is for $27,500 the first year, $28,500 the second, and $29,500 the third.

The decision followed a discussion on whether the town could save money by having its crews do the work.

“They used to do it with a town crew,” Selectman Terry Brann said.

Twenty years ago, the Public Works crew was larger, fewer cemeteries were included and trimming around stones was left up to the families, John Welch, Public Works foreman, said.

The town has six cemeteries with a total of 22 acres. The largest is Lakeview Cemetery, which is 18 acres.

With the projects the department has, including a road project on High Street and work on Bass Park this summer, the mowing could be done but not without sacrificing something else, he said. 

“Parks and Recreation have Kineowatha Park and all the other parks. Frank has all he can do,” Welch said.

Welch and Frank Donald, Parks and Recreation director, studied the idea before Tuesday’s discussion. 

The former mowing contractor had at least four people and spent 110 hours per week mowing, Welch said.

The season starts by mid-May, or sooner, to prepare for Memorial Day and requires weekly mowing until August. September usually requires weekly.

The cost of hiring three part-time workers for most of the summer was estimated at $25,000, with an additional $13,700 for equipment, Welch said. This did not include maintenance, fuel or liability insurances.

“We can do it as good but not cheaper,” Welch told the board. “It doesn’t fit in with what we’re doing.”

“I trust your opinions,” Brann told Welch and Donald.

In other business, the board decided to review materials and hold a discussion at their next meeting about discontinuing town roads that have more-or-less become long driveways.

The subject was brought up in 2006, but reasons for not doing it included potential changes in property valuation, Brann said. 

The tax assessor said it wouldn’t change the property tax at all but could increase value because the property would have a private driveway, he said.

According to meeting notes from 2006, roads considered were Jeff Adams Road, Greenleaf Street, Tilton Road, Gould Road, Milkman Road, Kingsbury Way and the Hathaway, Parsons, Melcher and Sanford McCrillis roads, Town Manager Rhonda Irish said.

She provided the board with information on the process for discontinuing a road.

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