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CEMETERY  COMMITTEE  REVIVED  AGAIN

LANDMARK N.Y.C. CEMETERY news...to rural Weston... is this not a Planning and Zoning issue, too?
C.G.S. Sec.19a:  http://www.cga.ct.gov/2009/pub/chap368j.htm
SWRPA 2002 STUDY:  http://www.swrpa.org/Default.aspx?Publications=188




The Jarvis Military Academy

Possible Weston cemetery sites: Jarvis property seems most suitable
Weston FORUM
Written by Kimberly Donnelly
Thursday, 04 March 2010 00:00

Based on specific considerations weighed by the town’s Cemetery Committee, it appears the Jarvis property on the corner of Norfield and Weston roads — the current location of the Parks and Recreation Department offices — is most suitable for use as a town cemetery.

Last week, the Cemetery Committee offered the Board of Selectmen a rating of three sites the town might consider using as a cemetery. These are the Jarvis property (site of the old Jarvis Military Academy) in Weston Center; the Moore property on Lord’s Highway; and the Fromson-Strassler property in Georgetown.

In rating the sites, the committee considered things such as development, maintenance and management costs; visibility to neighbors and from major roads; accessibility; environmental conditions; future expansion possibilities; compatibility with surroundings; and potential opposition by neighbors or regulatory problems.

The Jarvis property scored highest in both unweighted tabulation of ratings and in a weighted tabulation, which assigns a value based on importance to each consideration.

Jarvis received a total weighted rating of 2,139 points out of a possible total of 4,000. Fromson-Strassler received 1,860 points, and Moore 1,750 points.

The Jarvis property rated highest for considerations such as accessibility to a major road, topographic suitability, and subsoil conditions.

However, it did not rate well when it comes to future expandability (it is only a two-acre parcel). Jarvis rated 2, compared with 100 for each of the other two properties.

The only other considerations in which the Jarvis site rated lower than both the other properties was character of the property as a cemetery and present adequacy of the site.

The Cemetery Committee said the character of the property as a cemetery is based on expert opinion that a preferred site has a “rising uphill approach, or gently level, undulating or rolling, minimal forest cover, [and] ‘marginal agriculture.’”

In addition, the committee members believe a site should “complement Weston’s rural character and/or blend with exisiting development.”

The character of the Jarvis site was given a weighted rating of 144, compared with 200 for the Moore property, and a 188 for Fromson-Strassler.

As for present adequacy of the site, the committee said a desired site would provide the town with burial space for 50 years, which means a site of approximately two acres minimum. Since Jarvis is only two acres, is was rated a 165, comared with 250 for Moore, and 220 for Fromson-Strassler, both of which are larger.

The Cemetery Committee is made up of Richard Wolf, chairman, Pamela Bochinski, Benjamin Hume, Harold Matthews, and Stewart Pearl.

The selectmen decided that sometime after the end of this month — after Selectman Dan Gilbert returns from an extended trip — the selectmen will walk each of the properties with Cemetery Committee members.

First Selectman Gayle Weinstein said after that, the board will seek community input.

“We may each have personal preferences, but we all have a responsibillity to the community going forward,” Ms. Weinstein said.


FROM WHIDBEY ISLAND TO WESTON?
Tuesday, 2/2/2010 1:29 pm

Langley eyes fees for green burials
By ROY JACOBSON, South Whidbey Record Reporter
Jan 29 2010, 4:17 PM · UPDATED

The first reading of a proposed new fee schedule to include green burials at the city cemetery will occupy the Langley City Council at its meeting next week.

The council meets at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, at city hall on Second Street.

The city’s Cemetery Board came up with a suggested price for the new green-burial plots at Langley Woodman Cemetery.

The cemetery has set aside 48 plots for green burials, which are done without cement grave liners or embalming, and involve biodegradable caskets or sheaths.

There are only 11 other certified green-burial sites in the United States, two of them in Washington state, at Burlington and in Eastern Washington, said Debbie Mahler, city finance director.

Each green-burial site at Woodman Cemetery is 6 feet by 10 feet, compared to the standard 4 feet by 8 feet, and requires more space so maintenance vehicles don’t drive over the graves, risking the chance of a collapse.

The Cemetery Board recommends charging $1,200 per plot, with an additional maintenance fee of $400.

Because there have been several requests from off-island residents for the green-burial plots, a six-month pre-sale price for local residents of $1,000 plus $400 maintenance also is recommended, Mahler said.


Weston FORUM article and editorial on "open public meeting" televised on Channel 79 live!  #4 Moore not pictured...





CEMETERY COMMITTEE:  DECEMBER 2, 2009 AT 7:30PM IN THE TOWN HALL MEETING ROOM - "OPEN PUBLIC MEETING" NOTES...

Present:  Richard Wolf, Pam Bochinski, Hal Mathews, Stewart Pearl, Benjamin Hume;  Margaret Wirtenberg; John Conte, Town Engineer;  invited members of the public including the Board of Selectmen (Gayle Weinstein, First Selectman, Dan Gilbert and David Muller), two members of the Board of Finance (Mike O’Brien and Bob Atkinson), one member of the Planning and Zoning Commission (Jane Connelly), two members of the Commission on Aging (Lois Miller, Terry Hulley) and another dozen citizens.  Former First Selectman Woody Bliss was present.

The meeting was called to order by Chair. Richard Wolf at @7:35pm.   Wolf read the charge to this Cemetery Committee

The Committee introduced themselves to the public and explained their interest in the subject and why they volunteered to serve.

Pam Bochinski gave a thorough description of what had transpired over the 18 years since the first Cemetery Committee began work.  That first Committee recommended that the Town take over Coley Cemetery.

The second Committee recommended using parts of Bisceglie Park.   The third Committee did a business plan for a non-denominational cemetery on the newly acquired Fromson-Strassler parcel.  Committee #4, using a professional consultant, did a review of parcels, creating a matrix evaluating their possibilities and recommended properties that were either not available or encumbered. 

Richard Wolf then went on to explain how the new Committee had a slightly different charge (for 50 years worth of burials instead of 100 years), so that  more Town-owned properties were in play.  He described the map.  There were 10 or so potential sites located there.

Town Engineer Conte then went through his engineering assessment of the top 4 sites, discussing soils, depth to bedrock and other physical conditions;  access was discussed.

The public was recognized at all times if they had questions or comments.  Discussion ensued regarding the next steps, with the new Board of Selectmen making some suggestions about methodology, timing and the parcels themselves.  Chair. Wolf thanked everyone for coming.    

Architect pushes for changes at city cemetery
New Haven REGISTER
By Mary E. O’Leary, Register Topics Editor
Wednesday, October 7, 2009

NEW HAVEN — Architect Robert Stern made the case Tuesday for a “small intervention” in the wall on one side of the Grove Street Cemetery, but the owners of burial plots there dismissed the proposal as an intrusion into sacred space.

“The walk along Prospect Street is very unfriendly from the outside. It would be nice to catch a glimpse inside,” Stern said as he explained a plan to insert a cast-iron fence in three places along the 8-foot-tall sandstone wall.

He would also add another row of tall trees along the street, flowering bushes and ground cover, as well as more appropriate lighting adjacent to this section of the cemetery, which is a National Historic Landmark.

“I think, from the public’s perception, it is a bleak environment, but it can change into something much softer and more friendly,” said Stern.

The cemetery already has a cast-iron fence along the Grove Street perimeter; the sandstone wall on the three other sides was not added until 1841, after the original wooden fence deteriorated.

The suggestion to replace part of the sandstone with three four-foot sections of iron fencing was made by Charles Ellis, a proprietor of the cemetery and one of 11 members of its standing committee, who will make the final decision on any changes.

G. Harold Welch Jr., president of the standing committee, told the large audience of preservationists and proprietors that they won’t rush to make a decision. Anyone who owns a burial plot is a proprietor.

Ellis said his experience with cemeteries growing up in Massachusetts and going to school in Cambridge was of quiet, open spaces, and he considered opening up a portion of the wall along the Grove Street Cemetery as “a marvelous opportunity to improve the overall experience” of the city landmark.

Ellis, who is married to Yale Vice President Linda Lorimer, said the plan is not endorsed by the university, which is building two new residential colleges a block from the cemetery, but more of his idea, “to do something that might be useful to this community.”

Several widows who spoke up at the meeting agreed with the improved landscaping and lighting, but not touching the wall.

One woman said she drove her dying husband to the cemetery to show him where he would be buried. “He felt happy and content, if it is possible for anyone to feel happy that they had found the right place for them to be buried,” she said.

The thought that the cemetery would be opened up to passers-by “feels like such a violation of the committment I made to him. ... I find it bizarre to change something that is such a wonderful place,” she said to clapping from the audience.

Another woman said the Grove Street Cemetery is an example of a closed burial space, and to change it would violate that concept. “It’s a cemetery, not an attraction,” she offered.

Stern was not able to test how much noise and emissions would creep into the cemetery, but said any changes would be small compared to the amount of traffic already passing by on Grove Street.

Susan Saccio wasn’t buying any of the explanations.

Just having purchased a burial spot for herself and her husband, she found the proposal “very upsetting. This is a beautiful blessed space,” where visitors find peace and quiet, she said. “Leave the wall alone.”

“That wall really does imply a separation, whatever it is — it made me come here today,” to speak up, said Adrienne Lewis, whose husband, Gene Lewis, an architect, is buried there. “He just loved it” and would be happy she opposed any change, she said.

Stern, also the dean of the Yale Architecture School, said there have been changes over the years at the cemetery, as with most built structures.

“In my view, this is not a breaking of the sacred trust between 1840 and today. ... I have spent all my life as a preservationist. ... No building that I know of has been preserved exactly as it was,” while landscapes are constantly evolving, Stern said.

The Rev. Sandra Olsen of Center Church on the Green said she often accompanies visitors to the cemetery for memorial services and they are always comforted by the “mixture of intimacy and privacy they find. I don’t see the need to change that.”

Anstress Farwell of the New Haven Urban Design League presented Welch with a petition signed by 450 people opposed to the fence, but in favor of better landscaping.

Home Burials Offer an Intimate Alternative
NYTIMES
By KATIE ZEZIMA
July 21, 2009

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — When Nathaniel Roe, 92, died at his 18th-century farmhouse here the morning of June 6, his family did not call a funeral home to handle the arrangements.

Instead, Mr. Roe’s children, like a growing number of people nationwide, decided to care for their father in death as they had in the last months of his life. They washed Mr. Roe’s body, dressed him in his favorite Harrods tweed jacket and red Brooks Brothers tie and laid him on a bed so family members could privately say their last goodbyes.

The next day, Mr. Roe was placed in a pine coffin made by his son, along with a tuft of wool from the sheep he once kept. He was buried on his farm in a grove off a walking path he traversed each day.

“It just seemed like the natural, loving way to do things,” said Jennifer Roe-Ward, Mr. Roe’s granddaughter. “It let him have his dignity.”

Advocates say the number of home funerals, where everything from caring for the dead to the visiting hours to the building of the coffin is done at home, has soared in the last five years, putting the funerals “where home births were 30 years ago,” according to Chuck Lakin, a home funeral proponent and coffin builder in Waterville, Me.

The cost savings can be substantial, all the more important in an economic downturn. The average American funeral costs about $6,000 for the services of a funeral home, in addition to the costs of cremation or burial. A home funeral can be as inexpensive as the cost of pine for a coffin (for a backyard burial) or a few hundred dollars for cremation or several hundred dollars for cemetery costs.

The Roes spent $250.

More people are inquiring about the lower-cost options, said Joshua Slocum, director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance, a nonprofit watchdog group. “Home funerals aren’t for everybody, but if there’s not enough money to pay the mortgage, there certainly isn’t enough money to pay for a funeral,” Mr. Slocum said.

Baby boomers who are handling arrangements for the first time are particularly looking for a more intimate experience.

“It’s organic and informal, and it’s on our terms,” said Nancy Manahan of Minneapolis, who helped care for her sister-in-law, Diane Manahan, after she died of cancer in 2001, and was a co-author of a book, “Living Consciously, Dying Gracefully,” about the experience. “It’s not having strangers intruding into the privacy of the family. It’s not outsourcing the dying process to professionals.”

While only a tiny portion of the nation’s dead are cared for at home, the number is growing. There are at least 45 organizations or individuals nationwide that help families with the process, compared with only two in 2002, Mr. Slocum said.  The cost of a death midwife, as some of the coaches call themselves, varies from about $200 for an initial consultation to $3,000 if the midwife needs to travel.

In Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska and New York, laws require that a funeral director handle human remains at some point in the process. In the 44 other states and the District of Columbia, loved ones can be responsible for the body themselves.

Families are typically required to obtain the death certificate and a burial transit permit so the body can be moved from a hospital to a cemetery, or, more typically, a crematory.

But even in states where a funeral director is required, home funerals are far less expensive.

“I think with our economy being the way that it currently is, and it’s getting worse, that many people who may not have chosen to do these types of things may be forced to because of the finances,” said Verlene McLemore, of Detroit, who held a home funeral for her son, Dean, in 2007. She spent about $1,300 for a funeral director’s services.

Some families, like the Roes, choose burial on private land, with a town permit. In most states, those rules are an issue of local control. “Can Grandma be buried in the backyard? Yes, for the most part if the backyard is rural or semirural,” said Mr. Slocum.

(Some members of Michael Jackson’s family have spoken of making Neverland Ranch near Santa Barbara the singer’s final resting place, but officials say no one has submitted an application to the California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, which would have to approve the home burial.)

Recently, some states, with the backing of the funeral industry, have considered restricting the practice of home funerals. Oregon legislators last month passed a bill that would require death midwives to be licensed, something no state currently does.  Many death midwives are like Jerrigrace Lyons, who was asked to participate in the home funeral of a close friend, a 54-year-old woman who died unexpectedly in 1994. Ms. Lyons was initially frightened at the prospect of handling the body, but she participated anyway.

The experience was life changing, she said, and inspired her to help others plan home funerals. She opened Final Passages in Sebastopol, Calif., in 1995 and said she had helped more than 300 families with funerals. Weekend workshops for those interested in home funerals have a waiting list.  Ms. Lyons educates the bereaved about the realities of after-death care: placing dry ice underneath the body to keep it cool, tying the jaw shut so it does not open.

Mr. Lakin, a woodworker, makes coffins specifically for home funerals. Ranging in price from $480 to $1,200, they double as bookcases, entertainment centers and coffee tables until they need to be used.

He became interested in home funerals after his father died 30 years ago and he felt there was a “disconnect” during the funeral process. Mr. Lakin is now a resource for funeral directors in central Maine and a local hospice.  His coffins are sold to people like Ginny Landry, 77, who wants a home funeral one day but is content to use her coffin to showcase the quilts she makes. It once stood in her bedroom, but her husband, Rudolph, made her move it to a guest room because he pictured her in the coffin every time he laid eyes on it.

“It’s very comforting to me, knowing I have it there so my children won’t have to make a decision as to where I’m going to go,” Ms. Landry said.

During her battle with cancer, Diane Manahan also requested a home funeral, and the family did not know then how much it would help them with their grief.

“There’s something about touching, watching, sitting with a body that lets you know the person is no longer there,” Nancy Manahan said. “We didn’t even realize how emotionally meaningful those rituals are, doing it ourselves, until we did it.”

Valley Forge Cemetery:  Aquarion lays out challenges if Weston pursues site
Weston FORUM
by Kimberly Donnelly
Mar 5, 2008

The town would have to jump through several hoops to put a cemetery on the corner of Valley Forge Road and Newtown Turpike — and there’s no guarantee after jumping through them that it would ultimately be approved by the landowners.

That was the conclusion the Board of Selectmen came to after speaking with representatives from Aquarion Water Company on Feb. 28.
 
“You have a challenge ahead of you if you wish to consider the site in question,” said Leendert DeJong, manager of watershed and environmental management for Aquarion.

First of all, Mr. DeJong said, a state law was established in 1949 that prohibits cemeteries within a half-mile of a public water supply. The site in question is 800 feet from the Saugatuck Reservoir.

Selectman Glenn Major clarified that the law does not say the town can’t locate a cemetery there, but if it wants to, the town would have to go to Superior Court and prove the cemetery is a public convenience, a necessity, and it will not be detrimental.

Mr. DeJong agreed, but said there are other hurdles.

In 2002, what was formerly Aquarion land around the Saugatuck River Watershed was acquired by the state. In 2004, Governor M. Jodi Rell established the Centennial Watershed State Forest — the site in question is part of that 15,000-acre tract.

The land is technically owned by Aquarion, but is managed by the Conservation Land Committee (CLC), made up of the Nature Conservancy, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and Aquarion. Mr. DeJong said conservation easements and a natural resources agreement exist between the three parties.

The agreement says Class I land, such as that being considered for the cemetery site, is to be “dedicated and preserved in perpetuity in its natural and open condition for the protection of natural resources,” Mr. DeJong said. The interpretation of that, he continued, is that the land is intended to be used as open space and for recreational use only.

In addition, Mr. DeJong said, the state health department has the ultimate say in what is approved or not on Class I land, so the cemetery proposal would require health department review and approval.

Steve Stamos, manager of natural resources for Aquarion, is the water company’s representative on CLC. He told the selectmen the group would consider a cemetery to be inconsistent with the natural resource management agreement.

Mr. Major said, “One could make the argument that a cemetery is not inconsistent with what’s being done here.” He wondered if the Superior Court, the state DEP, and the Nature Conservancy “sign off on that area as being a cemetery,” would Aquarion agree.

If Aquarion would simply never agree to having a cemetery on the site under any circumstances, “that obviously would have a huge bearing on how we proceed,” Mr. Major said.

Mr. DeJong said they could take the question to CLC at its meeting this week “and get a direct answer.”

However, Mr. Stamos said, “I can tell you, the answer is going to be no.”

First Selectman Woody Bliss said the board would still like an official answer from CLC, and Mr. Stamos agreed he would get one.

CEMETERY COMMITTEE REPORTS TO SELECTMEN DEC. 20, 2007:
We attended this Selectmen's meeting, and as we heard it, it was the opinion of the Chair. of the Cemetery Committee Richard Wolf that only the Lachat property (see above right) fits the bill as a site for a Town cemetery, and this view is supported in the study by a consultant.  FORUM report follows:

Weston eyes Lachat for cemetery
by BRIAN GIOIELE, Weston Forum
Jan 2, 2008
 
A portion of the Lachat property, near the corner of Godfrey Road West and Newtown Turnpike, has been recommended as a possible site for a new town cemetery. —Kimberly Donnelly photo 
Cemetery experts believe that the Lachat property could be home to more than just a nature center.

The Cemetery Committee’s report — presented to the Board of Selectmen Dec. 20 — says a four-acre portion of the Lachat property is the “physically and aesthetically most suitable location for a proposed cemetery of the sites reviewed.”

The only problem is the land is jointly owned by the town and the Nature Conservancy. And Selectmen Glenn Major said Dr. Steve Patton, director of the conservancy’s Devil’s Den, has said that type of use is off limits.

“I don’t think the use of the property is inconsistent with the agreements (made in the Lachat deal),” said Mr. Major. “But when asked about this, Steve Patton told me, ‘Fine, use eminent domain.’ Those were his words.”

The Lachat site was among five locations in town analyzed for character and cemetery potential by Grever & Ward Inc. Landscape Architects and Cemetery Planners.

The other sites were:

•    Some three acres on the corner of Valley Forge Road and Newtown Turnpike.
•    The library site on Norfield Road.
•    The Jarvis property where Jarvis House sits on Norfield Road.
•    Expansion of the existing Coley Cemetery on Weston Road, just south of Goodhill Road.

“We decided that only one site of town-owned property could be recommended at this point in time, and that is a portion of the Lachat site,” said Cemetery Committee member Richard Wolf.

The committee’s report notes the delicate nature of the site’s ownership, but a cemetery would not be “incompatible with other uses under consideration.”

“The committee is mindful of the practical and political issues which the use of a portion of the Lachat property for this purpose may present,” said the committee’s report. “Nevertheless, the committee strongly believes that this cemetery site should be included as part of the land use master plan now being developed for the Lachat property by the town and the Nature Conservancy.”

When asked the remaining order of preference of sites after the Lachat property, Mr. Wolf said that no such decision was made.

“It is important that we have an order of preference for the other options,” Mr. Major said.

“The committee hasn’t done that,” said Pam Bochinski, committee chairman. “The consultant doesn’t feel that the other sites, other than the possible exception of the Valley Forge site, are good cemetery sites at all.”

The selectmen then asked why the Valley Forge site, which was also found appropriate for a cemetery in the consultant’s report, was not recommended.  The committee said using that site would require land acquisition, since the property in question is part of the Centennial Watershed State Forest, jointly managed by Aquarion Water Co., the state Department of Environmental Protection, and the Nature Conservancy.

Ms. Bochinski said Aquarion officials have stated the company would not allow such a development, meaning eminent domain would again be the only option.  Mr. Major asked for more information about the suitability of the Valley Forge Road site as well as estimates on what the costs would be to use eminent domain to take either the four acres of Lachat land or the three acres of Valley Forge Road property.

“If we in fact have to spend X amount of money, we might determine that it would be more cost-effective for us to investigate purchasing properties that we had not considered purchasing before,” Mr. Major said.

The consultant found the Lachat site “appears to be a very viable choice for a town cemetery” that could hold some 2,000 graves plus substantial facilities for cremated remains.

“The immediate neighborhood is thinly populated, no major commercial or other public facilities are competing for existing infrastructure, the demand for public services is practically nil, and safety conflicts are not apparent,” the report states.

This site would have longevity of 50 years as a cemetery, according to the consultants.  The Valley Forge Road site, located at the corner of Newtown Turnpike, could yield 2.4 acres of interment space, or some 2,200 graves. This means the site would last some 55 years, the report states.

“There are no notable restrictive site limitations other than the small existing cemetery whose limits of occupation are unknown,” the report states. “An archeological study would likely ensue in respect to the existing burial ground to establish its limits and avoid compromising its historical and heritage values.

“Otherwise, there are no neighborhood constraints, businesses or competitive entities to challenge its usage,” the report states.

Ms. Bochinski said that not only land acquisition but also clearing of the property make the Valley Forge Road location unsuitable.  But Mr. Major said using the Lachat site could prove to be the “most complicated regarding deed restrictions.”

However, Mr. Wolf said the committee still felt the Lachat land would be most suitable for a town cemetery.

“We thought there was a possibility of switching. The town could give up the rights to an equivalent piece of land to the Nature Conservancy,” Ms. Bochinski said.

“I specifically asked Steve (Patton). He was very unequivocal: ‘No,’” responded Mr. Major.

Selectman Gayle Weinstein asked about reutilizing Coley Cemetery, an idea the committee members shot down immediately.

“Quite frankly, some committee members have said you can recompose the committee if you decide to look at Coley,” said Mr. Wolf. “We have taken the position that Lachat is the only property that would satisfy the needs of a town cemetery, unless the town purchases other land.”

Ms. Bochinski said expanding Coley Cemetery would yield another 200 to 300 new grave sites, while ultimately destroying the historical character of the old cemetery. She said any new graves would “really be cramming things in there.”

“So the committee’s position is it is Lachat or nothing?” asked Mr. Major.

“Yes,” responded Mr. Wolf.

News from around CT...
Cemetery Group Links Two More Accounts To Cross 
New London DAY
By Jenna Cho    
Published on 9/26/2007 

Ledyard — In a matter of months, the Gales Ferry Cemetery Association's new board of directors has gone from having no records of its financial history to learning about the existence of three separate bank accounts under its name.

The latest discoveries were of two high-yield Certificate of Deposit accounts, since closed, that the association's former sexton, Cynthia L. Cross, had held at The Dime Savings Bank. It was the same bank that had held a checking account in the association's name that association officials say Cross used regularly to write checks from and deposit funds into.

Association President Susan Billing is hopeful the information she is gathering will help with an ongoing police investigation on discrepancies in the cemetery association's finances, which Cross, 53, appears to have operated single-handedly for years. Cross has not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing in the cemetery investigation.

Cross is currently serving a prison sentence for embezzling $152,000 from the Town of Ledyard's Water Pollution Control Authority. In that case, Cross was said to have pocketed cash payments made to the WPCA while she worked as its executive administrator.

Billing said Cross denied use of any bank account to conduct association business before she resigned in June. Billing discovered the CD accounts by requesting bank information on two deposits made to the association's checking account.

“Bank accounts are like road maps, right to the source of the money,” she said.

The problem, Billing said, was that banks only kept records for a certain number of years, and some of the history the association seeks goes back 17 years, when Cross took over as sexton from retired town treasurer Catherine L. Clark.

The CD accounts were closed on May 20, 2002 and Aug. 7, 2003. The account amounts — $8,104.22 and $4,996.97 — were deposited back into the checking account the same days the CD accounts were closed.

Association secretary Mary Emerich said that while Cross publicly denied managing any bank accounts under the association's name, Cross once told Emerich specifically that she was using interest generated from a CD account to maintain the cemetery.

The existence of the CD accounts also raises a question about the existence of a Board of Directors. Billing said Cross had told her before resigning that she worked under a board that met annually. The names Cross provided as board members didn't check out, but Billing said that bank records of the CD account that was closed in August 2003 showed that a woman named Kimberly E. Smith, identified in the records as the association's president, signed on that account.

Billing said she has not yet verified Smith's involvement and remained uncertain as to whether a board truly existed during Cross' time as sexton. The association reorganized in June and elected a new board.

Billing has requested information on 30 more deposits Cross made to the association's checking account. She said she hoped the history of those deposits would yield even more information on Cross' management of the association's funds.

“I think it's good news, even though unfortunately the money's not there,” said Billing of the discovery of the CD accounts. “What I'm hoping for is that one of the other deposits may show a source that still has funds in it. And I know that's probably wishful thinking, but it would be nice. If we don't find out, if we don't ask, we'll never know.”


Cemetery Committee 2009 Public Notices/informal, unofficial minutes
Members:  Hal Mathews, Pam Bochinski, Stewart Pearl, Richard Wolf, Benjamin Hume.



Minutes of Oct. 26, 2009


Minutes of October 7, 2009


WALK scheduled for September 26, 2009 at 9am (Saturday) of properties discussed at Sept. 8th meeting.


Agenda, Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 7:30pm, Commission Roon at Town Hall

Agenda, Monday, August 31, 2009 at 7:30pm, Commission Room at Town Hall

PREVIOUS COMMITTEE NOTES: "About Town" did not continue attending this Ad Hoc Committee because some of the work was being done in Executive Session (land discussions) to which we would not be invited to attend (since we are not on the Committee).
Meeting #5
The fifth meeting of this Committee will take place on Saturday, January 6, 2007 at 9:30am in the Commission Room at Town Hall.  The posted agenda includes approval of minutes of the previous meeting and a continuation of the discussion and evaluation of potential cemetery sites.
Meeting #4
The fourth meeting of the renewed Cemetery Committee (#3 was a windshield survey of Town owned and some not Town-owned properties reviewed for possible consideration for a Town of Weston cemetery - "About Town" did not go on this legally noticed [Dec. 2] "tour.") took place on Saturday morning, December 9, 2006.

After reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of sites "visited" on Dec. 2, the Committee concluded that a spread-sheet analysis and whatever visual aides needed to communicate its work, could be prepared later in January 2007 for informal review by the Town leadership prior to further steps such as actually proposing an application [NOTE:  this website's opinion coming up...] for a new zone for cemeteries, or a new Special Permit category for a Town Cemetery, to the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Meeting #2
In the second meeting of this new group, on Saturday, November 18, 2006, it was decided to move ahead with a quick review of land available including any made available since the last effort (windshield survey) as soon as a list of "top ten" sites can be assembled and located on appropriate maps to scale;  after the "windshield survey" the Committee will meet on Saturday, December 9, 2006 at 10am in the Commission Room at Town Hall.

New ideas regarding the existing memorial and role of a cemetery in community life were broached.

Minutes of the Cemetery Committee are available at the Town Clerk's Office.

In the public record...contact Town Clerk for membership on the immediately previous (2007) Ad Hoc Committee.

The Town of Weston has been studying the need for a Town Cemetery for perhaps 15 years.  An Ad Hoc Committee has been active in several bursts of activity in that time.  All minutes are available at Town Hall, as this has been one of the very best Committees ever appointed for posting notices and keeping up to date minutes on file!  Video record of "testimony" by members at LWV of Weston "Speak Up" events over the years is witness to this.

In 2006, a new effort began, ultimately coming to no conclusion that could be supported by the Selectmen.  References in our Board of Selectmen's Minutes on-line are as follows: