Westport Island selectmen at their meeting Monday evening, July 21 moved quickly and efficiently through a range of topics including mowing, plowing, paving and cemeteries.

A three-year contract was signed with G & D Cromwell General Contractors who will be providing snow plowing and sanding services for Westport town roads. A contract was also signed with G & D Cromwell for mowing the edges of town roads. Sealed bids for paving the areas around the Westport Island Town Office were opened and reviewed and the bid of Gene Reynolds and Sons Construction was approved.

There was a brief discussion of the state legislature’s recent changes to Maine’s laws concerning cemeteries. The legislature’s amended law concerning the upkeep of ancient cemeteries where U.S. military veterans are buried unfortunately may have invoked another law: that of unintended consequences, specifically with regard to budgets in Maine towns.

Westport Island has no public burying grounds and 70 private cemeteries, 53 of which are considered “ancient burying grounds” under the definition provided by statute which is a cemetery that was in use prior to 1880. Under the Legislature’s newly revised law and recent clarification of the revisions, the town may work in collaboration with veterans' organizations other interested parties in keeping graves, headstones and markers in good condition.

Westport Island, like all Maine municipalities affected by these laws, has until June 30, 2016 to adopt standards of “good condition and repair” to which veterans’ grave sites must be kept.

The town has a cemetery committee of four volunteers who are appointed by selectmen with an average annual budget of $200. The budget rarely is entirely used but provides for repair of grave stones or grave markers when they become damaged. The volunteers comprising the cemetery committee see to the clearing of brush and the overall maintenance of the island’s cemeteries as well as placing flags on the 50 veterans’ graves located in the Island’s various burying grounds. Given the previous and ongoing work of Westport’s Cemetery Committee, any budgetary impact from the new legislation may become a topic for future meetings.

The meeting concluded with Board Chairman George Richardson Jr. expressing his thanks to everyone who had sent him cards and wished him well during his recent illness.