Yarmouth Selectmen Hear Proposed New Cemetery Rules and Regulations

KA_Dennis_Graveyard grave yard cemetary_02_11315YARMOUTH – Yarmouth Selectmen held a hearing on Tuesday night with an ad hoc committee tasked with setting the rules and regulations for gravesite decorations in the town’s cemeteries.

The regulations call for decorations to be placed up to 18 inches in front of a gravestone, instead of the six inch limitation currently in place.

Also, fall and winter decorations should be removed by February 1 and town staff would have the right to remove shrubs or flowers after first notifying the lot’s deed holder.

“A cemetery is for the living, for people that go to see the people that they loved that they lost, and so what we’ve tried to accomplish was the mourners putting whatever they wanted to put in front of the stone,” said committee member Laurie Snowden-Lebel. “We tried to limit the space so that we were trying to have a reality and a wish list accomplished.”

The proposed regulations come after residents complained about the restrictions placed on them for expressing graveside grief.

The committee held a meeting with residents last year to discuss what they wanted to see in the proposed rules and regulations.

Snowden-Lebel said more room for mementos was the most important.

“The people that came to the meetings, that was what they wanted to hear,” said Snowden-Lebel. “You’re never going to make everyone happy but the people that were screaming the most, we were listening to them.”

The committee will meet with selectmen on December 6 for a finalization of recommendations for the rules and regulations and approval of the committee’s charges.

By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter

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