Adams Cemetery Commission Proposes Hike in Burial Rates
ADAMS, Mass. — The Cemetery Commission is looking to up the fees for burials in the town's graveyards.
Chairman Bruce Shepley presented the proposed updated fees to the Board of Selectmen's workshop meeting Wednesday, noting that the fees have not been updated since 2015.
"When you look at the rates and the different fee structures," Shepley said, "they're not uniform from town to town because every town has a little bit different way of running their cemeteries."
Shepley said the commission is not recommending raising the rates by a uniform percentage, but "we looked at each one and put what we thought was appropriate" for each service.
Some example of the proposed rate changes include an increase from $450 to $500 for the cost of a single lot for town residents; a jump from $250 to $400 for cremation burials for residents; and an increase from $750 to $900 for a single non-resident perpetual care fee. These are proposed rates, and will not go into effect until the Selectmen votes on them.
Selectman Joseph Nowak worried about the perception of raising the cemetery fees. He said many residents see Adams as having too-high tax rates, and that raising the fees for the cemeteries could cause issues among some of the residents.
Shepley parried this by saying, "everything has a cost to it, and why should the resources of the town be burdened, when it should be the responsibility of" the people burying their loved ones. He also pointed out that Pittsfield's two cemeteries are privately run, and private cemetery fees tend to be "significantly" higher than public ones.
Shepley also noted that full burials have decreased in recent years as more people are being cremated and buried that way. These burials cost less money, meaning that the town is losing money due to this new trend.
Selectman Howard Rosenberg nodded along to Shepley's discussion of the costs, and said the town should figure out the most cost-effective way to fund the operation of the cemeteries.
Part of the inefficiencies of the town's burial system stem from the state regulations on the accounts of cemeteries. The cemetery's Perpetual Care Fund, for instance, can only be invested in very specific ways, and the town cannot legally touch the principal of the fund unless it appropriates it at town meeting.
Therefore, the Cemetery Commission can only freely spend the interest on that account. Shepley said that the Perpetual Care Fund "is not making anything on interest." He noted that the commission has $463,541 in that account; it only generated $2,673 in interest this year.
Nowak said the state regulations on the cemetery accounts seemed "very archaic."
The Cemetery Commission's proposed new fees have not yet been approved by the Selectmen. They will discuss them further at another workshop meeting in the future and then would likely vote to increase them following that workshop.
