Boothbay Region Cemetery District trustees agreed unanimously Dec. 18 to set aside 30% of all lot sales in a perpetual care account whose earnings will be used for cemetery maintenance as defined by the current deeds. Currently, this applies to grounds upkeep, not headstones. 

The district oversees 11 cemeteries, whose mowing fees cost the district $40,000 last year, according to President Sarah Fahnley. 

There was debate about the district's responsibilities to maintain veterans' grave sites. Issues included the criteria for maintenance (if headstone repair was in that purview), worries about interfering with the living family’s wishes, and where “ancient graves” fell in the discussion. It was decided that district members would survey the cemeteries this summer to catalog any problems and return with their findings at a later date. 

In other action, trustees approved the district's proposed 2025 budget. The total was still being finalized but should be about $82,000, according to Fahnley. In addition to grants, interest payments and profit from lot sales, Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor contribute $18,000 each. 

Included in the budget is a $30,000 expansion project for Boothbay’s Evergreen Cemetery. Fahnley explained that out of the district’s 11 cemeteries, all are full except Evergreen. This means no new people can be interred at the other locations, and any new burials are due to those spaces being pre-purchased. 

“We want to expand at least one of the (two) empty lots (at Evergreen) and put a spot in there for the cremation remains because it's not very deep,” explained Fahnley. Due to the lack of ground depth, the district will have to wait for a survey to be completed to see how much of the expanded lot will also be able to accept full-body remains. Hydroseeding of the area will begin this spring with hopes to begin selling lots around that time.