Adams Looks at Columbarium For Cemetery
ADAMS, Mass. — The Cemetery Commission is looking at the possibility of installing a columbarium for its cemeteries.
Cemetery Commissioner Bruce Shepley told the commission last Thursday that he would like to explore the possibility of installing a columbarium, a facility that houses cremated remains.
"There are some very impressive monuments throughout the country that are these large walls with compartments that hold cremains ... they are getting more and more popular," Shepley said. "The culture is changing."
Cemetery Supervisor David Nuvallie said this concept is not new to the commission and prior commissioners were actively perusing the idea.
"Five or six years ago they were really into it ... the former town administrator was really into it, too, because there is money to be made with these," Nuvallie said. "We save land and we are going green in a way. Those [embalming] chemicals are not going into the ground."
Shepley added it would also give the town the opportunity to install a reflective garden or something of the like.
Commissioner James Taylor said the cemeteries are filling up and much of the open land in Bellevue Cemetery is not suitable for standard burials.
"If this is going to be above ground it will work because there are places there you just can't dig," Taylor said.
Nuvallie said standard burials are becoming a thing of the past and when he was first brought on the job in the 1980s, only 9 percent of burials were cremations. He said now it is about 50/50.
The commission decided to do some more research and possibly visit the columbarium in Springfield.
Nuvallie said recently a tree was taken down in Maple Street Cemetery.
"It was tangled in the lines and I had National Grid take it down yesterday for free, no charge," Nuvallie said. "It would have cost about $1,200 at least."
He said he has concerns about another tree that is 5 feet in diameter that has to come down. He said he wants it down in a month.
The commission told him to put it out to bid but asked if any of these trees will be replaced.
Nuvallie said he does not have the money in his budget.
"My budget does not allow me to replace anything," he said. "I get $3,000 and that barely gets me four trees. We don't even have enough to grind stumps."
However, Nuvallie said the tree farm at Bellevue Cemetery is ready to be harvested. He said he planted 20 Jefferson elm trees in 2010 after the town had bad luck with American Liberty elms grown in the 1980s.
"I haven't seen one live so we abandoned that elm tree farm and replaced it with a Jefferson elm tree farm," he said. "They are ready right now for next spring ... I wouldn't wait much longer than that because they will be too hard to handle ... I hate to see them sit there and die."
He said they have to be root pruned and replanted next spring.
Nuvallie said he would like to use them at Maple Street Cemetery and re-establish the center road tree canopy. Many of the trees are long gone.
"I liked that when I first came here 30 years ago; it was like a tunnel," he said.
The commission gave Nuvallie the authority to do want he wants with the trees. They asked him to leave five trees as spares.
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