Cemetery Trustees / Trustees of the Trust Fund / Minutes / March 3, 2008

"Cemetery Trustees"  "Trustees of the Trust Fund"

Cemetery Present: Gerry Plotts, Mary Blank, Lucille Gorges, Tony Davis-Sexton

TTF Present: Mary Blank, Lucille Gorges.

Minutes: The reading of the minutes from the February 4th meetings were postponed until April due to the absence of our Secretary, Patty Little.

Cemetery Trustees

McCourt Trust: A check for $2026.29 has been received from Oppenheimer & Co which manages the McCourt Trust. An expendable trust will be set up once the Selectmen receive their approval to accept donations for 2008. This trust, per instructions, will be used for cleaning and preserving headstones at the Village Cemetery.

BIG PROBLEM: When Patty and Mary were working on the wording for the new rules and regulations and referencing both the large 1995 Cemetery Map and the new design map it was discovered that Ed Goodrich had aligned the new Cemetery plots east and west, rather than north and south with the rest of the Cemetery. Mr Goodrich was “a little surprised” “We discussed the orientation at our meeting in Marlow on Nov. 5th.” , he said. We had not at that time seen the maps side by side or we would have noticed the discrepancy immediately. He instructed us to mark one of the 11x17 designs and mail it to him. Instead we had Allan Blank create the new design using a CAD program. The trustees have each rec’d a copy and once the trustees have approved the design, it will be sent to Mr. Goodrich as a pdf file. 

2008 CT – NH Proposed Legislation : Each trustee rec’d a copy of the proposed legislation for 2008.

NHCA Membership: In February our membership in NHCA was renewed.

NHCA Spring Meeting: A minimum of discussion was held in reference to the NHCA meeting on April 16th. Gerry and Mary attended the Fall meeting and at that time reported that it was interesting and edifying. The lunch was also very good. We were able to ride with the Keene CTs and will make plans to do so this time. Each trustee rec’d a flyer listing the topics to be discussed.

Cleaning and Preserving Headstones Mike from D&M Monument arrived to speak to us about the cleaning and preserving of the monuments. Last year when the CTs took a walk through the Cemetery. it was noted that many stones were broken or cracked and leaning. At that time Mary contacted Mike at D & M and met with him at the Village CT. He proposed that we repair all the stones in one season and that he would bill us over 3 years.

During his meeting with the trustees he agreed to honor that same payment plan with a payment date of May 1st : $2000 down, 2,000 to be paid in 2009, and the balance of $2500 to be paid in 2010. A total of $6500: $5500 for the upper section and $1000 for the lower.

The repair work would include resetting the “leaners “ first, then he would proceed with repairing the cracked and broken stones ( including those stored in the vault) using stainless channel along each edge of the stone. He believes that the work can be accomplished over 3 weeks time and will do a site survey after April 1st. He will send the CTs a written quote for the work. 

After Mike left, Mary said that she had spoken with Stephanie at Keene Monument to see whether Jay Blanchard would be interested in taking on this kind of work. It was agreed that since Jay has done a lot of work in Marlow he should be considered for this project. Mary will call and meet with him after the snow clears.

A discussion ensued about how to fund this project. We know that we will receive funds from the McCourt Trust to do the majority of the work, but we should research owners and descendents of the gravestones to be repaired to see if they would contribute ( make a donation) to this effort. 

Report on CT Public Hearing 2/15/08

On Friday, Feb.15th, Patty and Mary conducted a Public hearing at the Town Office to go over the additions and changes to the Cemetery Rules and Regulations. Five citizens attended the public hearing and voiced their concerns: Bob Rhoades , Judith Rhoades Zamarapac Linda Kendall, Joe Marcotte and Maria Baril.

Re: Article 14 - Although it made sense to those present that the CTs should not allow the purchase of cemetery plots in a helter-skelter fashion, the concern was expressed that those families who wish to purchase plots adjacent to one another would not be able to do so if a "block" did not have enough adjacent spaces. IE: rather than purchasing adjacent lots in a row, purchasing plots adjacent and across from each other would be more conducive to the wishes of the families to have "adjacent " plots. In order to accommodate this possibility we suggested that in such a situation the CTs would have the discretion to break with our rule of selling one block at a time.

Re: Article 18 - To paraphrase their concerns: "You mean to say if I bought a plot when I was younger and I have not put on a gravestone by the time I am 70 (and not ready to pass away) I could lose my plot?"

Although we assured them that the CTs would know who was still living in the area, that we were not attempting to take away any one's rights, and that it was mainly for plots unused for over 50 years with no descendants, they were not convinced. In addition I read the entire RSA ( it is a state law after all) which listed the procedures that must be followed. They still remained leery of such an addition to the rules. This RSA will appear in the new deed, ( and should have since 1994). They were also convinced that since it was not on the deed yet that they were "grandfathered". Mary agreed to contact Terry Knowles of the NH Charitable Trust. (as of 4/6/08 we have not heard from Terry on this of being grandfathered)

Re:Article 19 - Joe Marcotte was at the hearing to express his concern about how a number of plots have their headstones facing east and not toward the main access road. If, he said, this was applied to the old sections that it would be immediately noticeable. This is exactly how the Briggs stone was placed ( head facing the main access rd) and it looks very out of place and is head to head with his family plots. ( He also mentioned that this would be a problem for one of the Gorges’ plots)

Patty suggested that this rule could be applied to Perpetual Care section and that we should contact Jay Blanchard as to who made the decision for the Briggs ( and Bradshaw baby) gravestone.

The Warrant Articles were rewritten by Patty and Mary on Saturday 2/16/08 and were approved by Trustees before being passed to the Selectmen on Wednesday 2/20/08. The WAs were included in Warrant that the Selectmen signed over the weekend of February 23/24th.

Public Budget Hearing Mary attended the Public Budget Hearing on February 15th at the Town Office. The Selectmen and Budget Committee went over all budgets and warrant articles including those for the CTs. In reference to the budget it was explained that our budget was only increasing by $650 and the decrease in reimbursement from P/C reflected a decrease in the percentage of P/C plots vs non-P/C. It was noted that mowing of the non-plotted areas had previously been subsidized by perpetual care funds. In regards to the laptop request, it was explained that the present records were in 3-4 different files and that we need to consolidate these records in order to respond to the needs of the public more efficiently. It was also explained that the remainder of the work ( $2000) to be done at the Village Cemetery would come out of the unreserved fund balance as we had only spent only $4240 of the 2007 approved $7000.

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Trustees of the Trust Fund

Public Budget Hearing Mary attended the Public Budget Hearing on February 15th at the Town Office. The Selectmen and Budget Committee agreed to include a budget of $100 for the operating expenses of the Trustees of the Trust Funds. It will be established as a line item in the Financial Budget. Bob Allen thanked us and previous trustees for having paid for operating expenses out of our own pockets.

MS-9 and 10: Mary informed the Trustees that the auditor’s questionnaire, new this year, had been sent to the Auditors and that the MS-9 and 10 were mailed to the Charitable Trust and DRA on March 2nd.

Interest Rate Plummeting: After a short discussion about interest rates as we were meeting to go over the rules and regs, Mary researched and found that PDIP ( Public Deposit Investment Pool), where the Town invests their excess funds, offers a higher interest rate that is not subjective as are those from banks. JoAnne Klatskin of PDIP said that banks are subjective, choosing whose interest rate to lower. In fact, she said, they will lower interest rates in anticipation of decreased profits for the bank. PDIP, JoAnne says, does not work that way. Interest rates are the same across the board for the smallest to the largest depositor. On the day that we talked the ADR was 4.34 , while our money at Citizens was earning .65. Today the rates were PDIP 3.31 % and Citizens ,51. Even CDs at Citizens were 2.81% for 6 months. Our current CD, which matures on May 12th, is earning 4.36%.

Mary pointed out that we need to seriously consider how to proceed on this matter.

3rd Party Collateral : Currently we are receiving weekly and monthly statements for our money that has been deposited by Citizens Bank with the Bank of New York acting as a 3rd party collateral insurer. Here is Bev Tilley’s explanation of that account.

“The town’s funds are insured for balances over the FDIC limit of $100m. Until recently, most of our collateral (insurance) was held in-house and set aside on our books in the town’s name. With Bank of NY, that collateral is now held by them (the third-party) in an account set up in the town’s name. So in the event of a bank failure, Marlow would be able to go to Bank of NY and have them liquidate the securities to cover the funds they had with Citizens at the time of the failure.”

In the absence of our Secretary, Patty Little, minutes written by Mary Blank, Chairman of TTFs & CTs

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