Letter: Please vote to expand cemetery commission

Posted 10/19/18

To the editor:

It’s easy, I think, to take for granted all the work needed to manage a town like Barrington. 

Did you know for instance that Barrington has 21 boards, committees …

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Letter: Please vote to expand cemetery commission

Posted

To the editor:

It’s easy, I think, to take for granted all the work needed to manage a town like Barrington. 

Did you know for instance that Barrington has 21 boards, committees and commissions serving the town’s needs in all aspects of its management? From the town council, to zoning, to the water commission and to the cemetery commission, over 127 people and 15 alternates give their time and resources to make Barrington run as smoothly as it can. These many boards, commissions and the council range from a high membership of 10 to a low membership of three with the majority having five members.

This November there will be a ballot question asking you to authorize the increase of cemetery commissioners from three to five members. By the current town charter, the cemetery commission stands out as a commission with just three members. While three commissioners may have been able to effectively manage our cemeteries since the commission's founding in 1909, nearly 110 years ago, Barrington has done a lot of growing since then. Times have changed and so has the commission's workload.

Most people may know that our Barrington cemeteries are not funded by the town of Barrington. Since the commission's founding, it's has been a self-funded operation. We pay for the upkeep of two active, and four inactive Barrington cemeteries by carefully managing our finances generated through investments and the sale of cemetery plots. In addition to financial management, we oversee several hundred thousand dollars in burials, tombstone conservation and preservation, grounds maintenance, and landscaping each year. The commission also perform a host of other administrative tasks and puts on at least one public program each year. Our latest program featured a demonstration of ground-penetrating-radar (GPR) at the slave memorial in Prince's Hill cemetery.

While we receive absolutely no taxpayer funding for cemetery operations, we do need your vote in November to change the town charter to increase the size of the commission from three to five members. Honestly, we can really use your support. Two more commissioners will allow us to serve you better and lighten each of our workloads just a bit. It’s an honor for all of us who serve on the cemetery commission as we work to preserve the history of the people who came before us, and we hope you will support this important initiative in November.

Timothy E. McMahon

Barrington

Mr. McMahon is cemetery commissioner.

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