Monmouth Cemetery Association

2024 Annual Meeting

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Lower Level Cumston Hall

Attendance: Mary Turner, David Handley, Hugh Lemaster, Chris Howard, Cody Roy, David Shaw

1. 6 pm – Field Visit to East Monmouth 

   1. Cellar hole – Keith Hunt wants the granite – Mary will tell him no.

   2. Keep it as an Ossuary? Put a fence around it? 

      1. Hugh – will do more research on this… 

2. 6:30 pm – field visit to Lakeville Cemetery – trees have been cleaned up

Annual Meeting – 7 pm – Call to order – Mary 

3. New Member – Cody Roy – Welcome

   1. Dave S makes a motion to elect Cody to the board and as the treasurer. Mary Seconds. Passed.

   2. Cody Roy is a trustee on the board and as the treasurer, he has all rights and authorizations for handling our checking and savings accounts and our investments.

4. Ridge – shrubs to be trimmed and removed

   1. Hugh – Call Dale Scott

   2. Mary – Check with Brandon on shrubs (pull and fill in holes)

   3. David – to plant crab apples and other shrubs at the Ridge and East

5. Cremation section at East Monmouth – Hugh spoke with Brandon

   1. Parking lot – we accepted Brandon’s bid (late July) $13,000

6. Restoration of stones

   1. Mary has a list of 5 or so stones that need Collette to restore. 

   2. Pease Hill – John Collette has this on his list

   3. Bruce Collette – we have asked them to do some restoration with our cemeteries

   4. Mary – email Hugh her list of stones to be repaired

7. Ridge – Buffalo water tank (very old, rusted out) – needs to be hauled off

   1. Shawn Wheeler? RA Moser? Mary will contact someone to remove tank

   2. Purchase a new one? Tractor Supply 500 gal for $1000. No vote.

8. Ridge – When do we want to open section 7? 

   1. Ask Ray to bring in some loam to the top of section 7 and seed to grass

9. Laptop with cemetery software consideration for Mary

   1. Better Software? 

   2. Updated Laptop? 

   3. Mary – needs to make the map a bigger font

10. Move to accept April Minutes – Mary. Hugh Seconds. Passed.

11. Move to accept 3 Treasurer Reports – Hugh. David H. Seconds. Passed.

    1. Dave S. is having trouble reading the Wells Fargo Reports.

    2. Dave S. is having trouble getting reports from the town about how much we paid in bills 

12. Election of officers

    1. President – Mary Turner

    2. Vice President – Hugh Lemaster

    3. Secretary – Christina Howard

    4. Treasurer – Cody Roy

    5. Move to accept the slate of officers – Dave S. Hugh Seconds. Passed.

13. Composting – LD 536 – law has been proposed.

    1. Hugh will investigate what other states are doing

    2. Motion for Monmouth Cemetery Association to say no to that type of burial until we have a process to bury them. We are waiting for the legislature to write rules for this new law – Hugh. Dave S Seconds. Passed.

14. Plastic Vaults – starting to get popular. Should we accept these in our Monmouth Cemeteries? Motion to hold off accepting plastic vaults in the MCA cemeteries until we have more information – Hugh. Second – Dave S. Passed.

    1. Mary – talk with Brandon, and get his opinion about these.

    2. Hugh – call the Maine Veteran Cemetery to gather more info.

15. Burial permits are increased to $25 (a law that just passed.)

16. Doug and Marilynn Grant – want a full burial at East Cemetery. 

    1. Hugh will call them back. Still reviewing if there are any openings. None at this time.

17. Center Cemetery – New guy isn’t mowing as much as he needs to. He’s a high school student. Hugh is having many conversations with him.

18. Trees – none on the list right now. Let’s keep doing more tree removal.

    1. Chris – have Josh mark first section to remove white pines.

19. Motion to adjourn meeting – Hugh. David H Seconds. Passed.