Veterans seek town funding for neglected
cemeteries
By Andrea Rose
Staff Writer
SANFORD: As many as 200 cemeteries in Sanford and Springvale may be in
need of repair to meet the guidelines of a state law passed several
years ago, according to James Batchelder, chairman of the Sanford
Veterans Committee and state commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
The law requires towns to maintain cemeteries
containing the grave or graves of U.S. veterans dating back to the Civil
War.
"We're been tasked to take care of these cemeteries and see that they
are properly decorated," Batchelder told the town council on Oct. 2.
"Right now, they are in deplorable condition. The town in some cases has
helped, particularly ones near the highway, but now we're asking the
town to help financially."
Herv Young, secretary and treasurer of the Sanford Veterans Committee,
told the council the committee understands it will need to approach the
town finance committee during budget season to request funding. "We're
putting you on notice," he said.
Young said he anticipates the committee will need money for gas mowers,
brush cutters, grass seed, cement and other gravestone repair materials.
"The existing budget is certainly not enough to do what we need to do,"
he said.
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Joe Armstrong and Steve Malo, president and vice president,
respectively, of the veterans group Rolling Thunder Chapter 2 Maine,
began work this summer to locate the town's old cemeteries and determine
in which ones a veteran (or veterans) may be buried. The group's primary
missions is to publicize the POW/MIA issue.
They were returning from a Memorial Day weekend veterans’ event in
Washington when they first noticed local cemeteries without markers or
flags for the veterans resting there.
Taking the lead, Malo then contacted local historians, genealogists and
town officials to identify deceased Sanford and Springvale residents who
had served their country. He consulted with Harland Eastman, president
of the Sanford Springvale Historical Society, and Marcel Blouin,
director of parks and recreation and public property, to find documented
evidence and approximate locations of all the cemeteries in Sanford and
Springvale.
Using a combination of old books and tax maps, Armstrong and Malo have
located and recorded the GPS (Global Positioning System) coordinates of
more than 100 cemeteries so far. The chairman of the veterans committee
said he hopes the GPS coordinates will be used to place the cemeteries
on the town's digital map for easy reference.
In August, Armstrong, Malo and a dozen other members of Rolling Thunder
tackled an overgrown cemetery on Stanley Road in Springvale that
contains the remains of at least two Civil War-era veterans.
But that is just one of the more than 100 - and as many as 200 - small
graveyards in need of clean up and repair.
"We're going to need to get the Boy Scouts, high school students doing
community service and other community volunteers" to clean up all the
cemeteries, Batchelder said.
Based in Saco, Reporter-Weekly Observer Andrea Rose can be reached at
207-283-1878 or by e-mail at
arose@keepmecurrent.com.
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