HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Cemetery Sextons - 08/21/2019Cemetery Sextons August 21, 2019
The South Burlington Cemetery Sextants held a meeting on Wednesday, August 21, 2019 at
2:00 p.m., at 575 Dorset St, 2nd floor.
MEMBERS PRESENT: P. Taylor, D. Kinville, T. Chittenden
1. Agenda Review.
No changes were made to the agenda
2. Instructions on exiting building in case of emergency:
Ms. Kinville provided emergency exiting instructions.
3. Comments & Questions from the public not related to Agenda items
No comments from the public.
4. Approve minutes from June 18, 2019
P. Taylor moved to accept the minutes and was seconded by T. Chittenden. Motion passed
unanimously.
5. Review quote from Catamount Subsurface Investigations
P. Taylor thought without the sonar of the 2 cemeteries we would not be sure which graves are
occupied and therefore a necessary expense. T. Chittenden echoed P. Taylors thoughts and
thought that the quote came in at the low end of what he expected, around $11,000. D.
Kinville mentioned that CSI would work with the GIS person over at the highway department in
taking the information supplied by CSI and help create the map. D. Kinville offered to use a
special reserve account of the Clerk’s office for the survey, out of the restoration,
computerization and digitization fund. D. Kinville made the motion that CSI be approved to
sonar the 2 cemeteries and it was approved unanimously.
6. Discuss side fence at Eldredge
P. Taylor suggested that H. Riehle, who sits on the airport commission for the City, be
approached to see if she could get more information on the airport replacing the fence that
they removed. After discussion it was decided that we would wait until after we present to the
City Council.
D. Kinville read an email that Justin Rabidoux, highway engineer, sent to her stating that the
front section of the fence that was hit by a car last winter was scheduled to be replaced soon.
7. Follow up on previously discussed topics, discussion on next steps and what to
bring to council and when
T. Chittenden distributed a draft of a report he created to present to the council on the topics
we discussed at prior meetings. The first part of the report is a discussion of our meetings and
observations at the cemeteries. The second section will be referred to as the Strategic Plan and
lists the improvements or tasks that the sextons wish to bring before the council. Some are
immediate and others within 3-5 years and listed by priority. It was noted that there are
different priorities for each of the 2 cemeteries once they are both sonared and mapped out. It
was noted that the sextons are not the policy making body and it would be up to the Council,
by Statute the current City’s Cemetery Commission, if they wished to proceed on any of the
strategic plan items. T. Chittenden sent an e-mail to H. Riehle and K. Dorn asking for 20
minutes at an upcoming City Council meeting to go over this report.
D. Kinville relayed that the Town of Colchester just had the Old Cemetery Association come on
a Saturday to their cemetery and assisted with the cleaning and placements of the headstones.
T. Chittenden wondered how much there really was in the Cemetery Fund and if the Council
agreed to the strategic plan, could we get some of those funds for the work in the strategic
plan. P. Taylor wondered how many plots have been sold in the last 5 years and did the money
go into the cemetery fund? It appears that plot sales are currently the responsibility of the
Public Works Department.
The 3rd draft version of the Sextons report is attached to these minutes.
8. Other business
There was no other business.
9. Adjournment:
As there was no further business to come before the committee the meeting was adjourned by
common consent at 3:23 p.m.