Cemetery trustee Barbara Pinkham requested more funds to maintain six cemeteries

WHITEFIELD — Cemetery trustee Barbara Pinkham requested more funds to maintain the town’s six cemeteries at Monday’s Select Board meeting. Pinkham said the current $5,000 budget for cemetery maintenance was woefully insufficient and asked for an additional $8,000 in 2024. The cemetery trustees cannot find someone to fill the vacant cemetery sexton position and will likely have to pay contractors an hourly rate to maintain graves, repair fences, repaint signs, seed and lime lawns, prune, trim and remove trees and brush, and so forth. Pinkham expects a pay-per-job arrangement would cost “a whole lot more than $5,000.” The Select Board said they supported the proposed $8,000 increase to $40,000 for the 2024 cemetery budget. They had suggested the Public Works Department assume responsibility for cemetery maintenance. However, Public Works Director Rob Larson previously said his department did not have the manpower to take over cemetery maintenance and would have to increase spending to do so.