ADAMS, Mass. — The Cemetery Commission has asked the Department of Public Works to keep a closer eye on the accumulation of trash at the cemeteries.

 

A concerned resident last Thursday asked the commission about the appropriateness of items placed on graves and maintenance. 

 

"If you ride around the cemetery and look at the stones, it is not the stones that we looked at 50 or 60 years ago," Chairman Bruce Shepley said. "What you will find is little figurines, little statues, non-religious. You might have a can of beer cemented onto the stone and that is what is going on."

 

Shepley said the commission does not have regulations dictating what can and what cannot be placed on a gravestone and said he would not be in favor of making any. 

 

He said the cultural is changing and people are memorializing the dead differently and that is OK. 

 

"I don't want to be a test case in a court that states something can't be on a stone because it is distasteful in the eyes of someone else," he said. "I don't want to place a definition on what is acceptable and what is not because a lot of this is freedom of speech."

 

Adams native Milan Markovic, who made the initial complaint, agreed with Shepley and said he was OK with people placing whatever they wanted near the stones. He said his issue was the "overabundance and non-care."

 

"This is not based on religion for me ... this is simply to me a mild maintenance issue and I think just letting people know that some things are unacceptable," he said. "When you go up there with pinwheels and lights it looks like a circus and people are careless they just dump it toward the side and now there is trash blowing all over."

 

Markovic said he thought as long as people maintained stones and properly removed decorations when they become weathered and unstable there shouldn't be an issue.   

 

Shepley said he did speak to the DPW crew and they pledged to keep an eye on unkempt stones and what is placed on them.

 

Markovic said he did not think this should be the town's responsibility and that people should respect other families.

 

"I don't believe it is all the grounds people's responsibility," he said. "We all need to contribute to this and maintain it and not just say let the town take care of it."

 

Shepley agreed and said it seems to be a matter of educating people and making sure they know it's a problem. 

 

He added that he was hesitant to place trash cans on the grounds because people tend to just throw household trash in them.

 

Commissioner Jim Taylor said anything left on the grave plot after the interment must be removed and noted the DPW could be more strict about this regulation.

 

In other business, Shepley the Bellevue Cemetery garage renovation project is scheduled to go out to bid at the end of the month.

 

"There is some material that resembles asbestos and they have to talk to a company about it," he said. "It is around the seals in the windows so they expected it to go out to bid at the end of this month."

 

Taylor also said the cemeteries are looking better this season.

 

"I was up there yesterday and it looked very nice I walked around and I drove around the whole perimeter," he said. "I was very much impressed it looks like they got some good seasonals."