While the town of Lysander continues to hash out its budget for 2016, representatives from local cemetery associations are hoping there’s a piece of the pie for their cemeteries.
Representatives from Lysander Union Cemetery, Jacksonville Rural Cemetery and Plainville Rural Cemetery approached the Lysander Town Board at its Sept. 28 meeting to ask the board to consider funding for the cemeteries in 2016.
Lysander Union Cemetery, Jacksonville Rural Cemetery and Plainville Rural Cemetery are each operated and maintained by their respective cemetery associations, but representatives say the cost of keeping their cemeteries presentable is mounting fast.
According to the cemeteries’ advocates, the Lysander Town Board ultimately can save itself the expense of having to take over maintenance of the cemeteries by providing funding for the cemeteries in the budget. If a cemetery association dissolves, the municipality in which the cemetery is located is responsible for the maintenance, according to Section 291 of New York State Town Law.
Norma Ward Newman pleaded her case to the Lysander Town Board for a second year in a row. Newman requested $4,000 to $5,000 for Lysander Union Cemetery, citing the state’s General Municipal Law, Section 165-a, “Voluntary municipal assistance to public cemetery corporations,” which says municipalities may provide funding, goods and/or services to a public cemetery corporation.
“I sincerely hope that this town board will give this request serious consideration, as I feel last year my request did not get the attention it should have, with no response from this board,” Newman said. “This is a much-needed expenditure in this town.”
Sherri Woods, secretary and treasurer of the Plainville Rural Cemetery Association, reported that the Plainville Rural Cemetery Association is operating at a deficit of $6,465. Meanwhile, John Horner, president and treasurer of the Jacksonville Rural Cemetery Association, said he sought financial assistance for Jacksonville Rural Cemetery from the town board back in 2011. He said the town helped the cemetery level out the driveways, but he returned in 2015 to ask for more help.
“We have been able to afford regular upkeep, but any major repairs — roof, fence, trees and equipment — are devastating to our budget,” Horner said.
Horner said Jacksonville Rural Cemetery contains the remains of more than 165 veterans, including three Revolutionary War veterans, 17 War of 1812 veterans and 51 Civil War veterans. Among the 978 surnames in the cemetery are some of Baldwinsville’s best known: Palmer, Bogardus and Baker.
Newman cited the town’s agreement to care for Chase Cemetery as a precedent for extending a hand to the other cemetery associations. Lysander contracts with ProScapes in Jamesville for $471 per mowing.
Highway department mows 5 cemeteries
Currently, the Lysander highway department maintains five abandoned cemeteries — Cold Springs Cemetery on Hillside Road, Belgium Cemetery on River Road, Hortontown Cemetery on Babcock Road, Adams Family Cemetery on Plainville Road and Myrtle Grove Cemetery in the Speach tract.
Resident Fred Burtch volunteered to maintain a sixth, Old Presbyterian Cemetery, as it adjoins his property at the intersection of Plainville and Church roads.
Highway Superintendent Gene Dinsmore said he follows the Chase Cemetery maintenance schedule for these five cemeteries — twice per month and before major holidays during the growing season. Dinsmore said he sends a crew of three highway employees to mow all five cemeteries in one day. Labor and equipment costs amount to about $400 per mowing. Dinsmore said the highway department mows the cemeteries about 15 times per year.
“We never want the grass to be more than five inches in length. Normally you keep your lawn at home around three inches,” he said. “If it’s not coming up on a scheduled mowing but the grass is getting long because we got a lot of rain and it’s really growing like crazy, that’ll cause an extra mowing.”
Dinsmore said he directs his employees to maintain these cemeteries because of Section 291 of the town law and because he believes maintaining the cemeteries shows respect for Lysander’s history and the people buried there.
“I think it’s atrocious to even think of not maintaining them — that’s our history and our ancestors. It’s just good common sense and respect for our elders,” he said.
Board’s not on board
However, during the work session preceding the board meeting, Supervisor John Salisbury denied that the town board agreed to maintain all of the cemeteries. He said Section 291 requires towns to mow cemeteries a minimum of twice a year, much less than the average 15 times a year Dinsmore cited.
Councilor Andy Reeves said he had asked Town Clerk Lisa Dell and Dinsmore for a cost breakdown on what both departments spend on cemetery records and maintenance. He said neither had responded to his request for information.
“With all due respect, they’re elected officials; they don’t have to [respond to me],” Reeves said. “But it’s budget time — when I ask for it, and I expect to have it. I think as a board we need to decide if that’s important or not.”
Reeves said he doesn’t want the town to “entice” cemetery associations into abandoning their cemeteries to the town’s control.
“What we don’t need is to encourage cemeteries to walk away and say, ‘Hey, the town will … log all the plots, mow it twice a month. We’re crazy to control it all ourselves. Let’s turn it over to the town,’” Reeves said.
Going rates
Dinsmore said some rural cemetery associations may not be charging the going rate for plots and burials, which he said ranges from $700 to $1,000. According to the Motley Fool, the cost to open and close a grave can be as much as $1,000, and cemetery plots “typically cost between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars.”
“There’s nobody with a hope of staying solvent that is charging less than $300 [for a grave site],” Dinsmore said.
According to the financial information for Plainville Rural Cemetery Association that Sherri Woods submitted to the town board, Plainville only took in $500 in grave sales last year but took in $4,500 for interments.
A sign at Jacksonville Rural Cemetery, however, lists a $700 charge for graves, and burial prices range from $340 to $700, placing Jacksonville within the typical range.
As for Section 165-a, Dinsmore said the town could offer in-kind services to the remaining cemetery associations rather than giving them funding outright.
“Cash is a whole ‘nother ball game,” Dinsmore said. “We do not have a lot of extra money.”
