SUMNER —  The board of selectmen at its meeting Tuesday agreed more attention should be paid to maintaining town cemeteries, particularly the Robinson Cemetery which has not been kept up in years.

“It’s a shame for the cemetery to look like it does,” said Stephen Peters, who has lived next to the cemetery for almost 18 years. Peters is a member of the planning board as well as the historical society.

According to Peters, Velma Keene, a lady who once lived there, left $10,000 when she passed away to be used toward repair and maintenance of the cemetery.

At the meeting, selectmen agreed to hire Collette Monuments of Lewiston to clean, straighten out and repair the cemetery’s broken headstones for $2,278.

In the past, said Peters, Collette Monuments did a good job fixing the headstones at Elmwood Cemetery after it been vandalized.

He said finding someone to make the repairs has been a challenge because the work requires that the contractor have $500,000 worth of liability insurance. According to Stephens, Collette carries this kind of insurance.

Currently, said selectmen, there is more than $42,000 available for town cemetery maintenance.

“I have to agree with Stephen,” said Town Clerk Susan Runes. “Collette [Monuments] is great; I think they are very reputable.”

According to Peters, there are a number of stones in town, in addition to those at Robinson, that need repair. Board Chairwoman Mary Ann Haxton said there has been talk in town about erecting a cemetery committee in order to address this issue.

The idea, she said, is that all town cemeteries would eventually be repaired, and hopes that a committee will be formed by next spring.

In the past, Peters said, the historical society did a full inventory of all the cemeteries. Over the last two years, he said, it also bought signs for each one.

According to Peters, work will be done at the Robinson Cemetery sometime between now and mid-November and at the other cemeteries over time.

In addition, said Runes, the town is looking for volunteers to straighten out the old fence at the Upper Sumner Hill Cemetery. At town meeting in August, she said, residents voted to appropriate money toward materials.

“It’s a beautiful fence,” she said. “We need to maintain it by standing it up.”

The hope, she said, is to have the work done before the snow flies.

“I don’t know which ones are the worst,” said Peters of the town’s cemeteries, “but I know there are some pretty bad ones.”  

In other news, the board:

• Appointed Sidney Abbott as licensed plumbing inspector and code enforcement officer for a one-year term and Marianne Todd to the recreation committee for a two-year term.

• Accepted the resignation of Bob Runes from the appeals board.