HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Cemetery Sextons - 04/10/2019Cemetery Commission April 10, 2019 The South Burlington Cemetery Sextants held a mee ng on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 at 9:30 a.m., in the
2nd floor Conference Room, City Hall, 575 Dorset Street. MEMBERS PRESENT: P. Taylor, D. Kinville, T. Chi enden
Invited Guests: Karen Plan er, Emily Norway
1. Agenda Review.
No changes were made to the agenda
2. Instructions on exiting building in case of emergency: Ms. Kinville provided emergency exi ng instruc ons.
3. Comments & Questions from the public not related to Agenda items
No comments from the public.
4. Approve minutes from October 18, 2018.
T. Chittenden moved to accept the minutes of October 18, 2018 and was seconded by P. Taylor. Motion passed
unanimously.
5. Review History of South Burlington cemeteries with city employees and review documents and
maps
Donna presented the Sextons with a work binder of available information related to South Burlington
Cemeteries, Sextons and Cemetery Committee/Commission.
Karen Plantier, the prior DPW employee who handled the cemetery records for many years, was present as well
as the new DPW employee Emily Norway to help answer questions from the sextons. The discussion topics
varied and are reported below:
a. There was a question on whether we are sextons or the cemetery committee which carry
different duties per state statue. T. Chittenden will follow up with Kevin Dorn, City Manager.
b. In order to be buried in a city cemetery, Sonny Audette a prior sexton, required that each
burial be in a vault or cremation in a marbled urn was adequate.
c. It was noted several times that the cemeteries, especially Shelburne Rd, are not well
maintained and will need some major cleaning, stone repair and fencing.
d. DPW (Dept of Public Works) mows the cemeteries as needed
e. The 2 cemeteries (Eldredge and Shelburne Rd) have in the past been marked with headpins
but not completely done.
f. Tom Chittenden questioned whether the roots of the trees in Eldredge were affecting any of
the graves. That will need to be answered by Craig Lambert, the city arborist.
g. Does the City of South Burlington need an active cemetery? Discussion on whether we close
selling of plots or keep an active cemetery. As of this point it was decided to keep an active
cemetery but will research whether we can close selling of plots if there is still room.
h. Could either cemetery hold a section for green burials? K. Plantier commented that the
Shelburne Rd cemeteries water table is too high for green burials. Eldredge does not appear
to have the appropriate available space to do so. This will be tabled to a much later future
agenda for discussion.
i. Fences: After viewing a survey done in 2017 of the cemeteries, it appears that Shelburne Rd
has a chain link fence on 3 of it’s 4 sides but unsure of its condition. Eldredge has a fence but
one section is down to a car accident. E. Norway will check with DPW to see if the fence is
due to be replaced once the weather changes.
j. Reviewed all the maps that have been collected over the years and there is one map for
Eldredge that has some lot sizes and lot numbers noted on it, some do not and there are some
open spaces. Discussion was on how to take the information on lot sales and fill in the map
with who owns the plot, how many lots are in a family plot based on size, and how to mark
out the unplotted sections. K. Plantier suggested that the Town of Williston has a person who
plotted their cemeteries and suggested we contact them for their service and/or advice.
k. Peter Taylor brought up the fact that with only 3 members it doesn’t allow for 2 members to
discuss an issue without it being in violation of the open meeting law. Could we enlarge the
number of sextons? That would be up to the City Council to decide.
l. There are no rules or guidelines for how these cemeteries should be run such as hours,
flowers, burial requirements, etc. that have been established for either cemetery. D. Kinville
will get Burlington’s and Williston’s rules and regulations as prior sextons have referenced
Burlington’s in the past.
m. Action items to be completed:
a. Contact Kevin Dorn to see what our title and duties are.
b. Set up time to walk both cemeteries with City Arborist and public works director
c. Meet with Williston to discuss cemetery plotting/surveying
6. Discuss organizing meeting with other towns and possible agenda ideas
Peter Taylor and Donna Kinville discussed calling a clerk’s meeting and inviting the Secretary of
State’s office (who wrote the Digging Deep booklet), Paul Heald (Head of the VT funeral directors)
and clerks to a meeting to go over the duties of being a sexton and cemetery commissioner and VT
laws on burials as well as a round table discussion for questions. Donna Kinville will contact both
parties to see if something can be arranged. D. Kinville noted that she has been contacted several
times recently to discuss cemeteries by other towns who would be interested in such a meeting.
7. Development of a list of individuals, resource people to be invited to next meeting:
With the discussion of item #6 and arranging a walkthrough of the cemeteries with City staff, these
items were already covered above.
8. Other Business:No other business was brought before the Board.
9. Adjournment:
As there was no further business to come before the commi ee the mee ng was adjourned bycommon consent at 10:45 a.m.