ISLAND FALLS, Maine — The poor condition of his wife’s grave has prompted a Crystal man to seek action from the Island Falls Board of Selectmen.
William Dill claims his wife’s grave, located in the Island Falls municipal cemetery, is in extremely poor condition and the town appears unwilling to address the problem. Dill’s wife Patricia passed away on Nov. 18, 2011. The first problem with the town arose immediately when the wrong gravesite was dug, he said. The remains of his son George, who passed away in 1975 and was cremated, were also placed in his wife’s grave.
Recently Dill discovered her burial plot had sunk and was in need of topsoil and grass seed to bring it up to satisfactory conditions. The Dill family said they were going to fill in the depression themselves, but when they went to do so, they found the depression had been filled with rocks and gravel.
“They filled the grave in this year with gravel and the whole plot is nothing but weeds,” Dill said. “There is no grass, it’s all weeds. Nobody else’s graves are like that.”
Island Falls Town Manager Dave Dionne confirmed he has had several conversations with Dill to try to remedy the matter. The town of Island Falls does not have a full-time cemetery maintenance person, so Dionne asked a volunteer to go the cemetery and fill in the depression as best they could with the dirt that was available.
“It was later in the season, so no seeding was done,” Dionne explained. “He came back to the town office and wasn’t satisfied.”
Dionne said he then went to the gravesite to see what condition it was in and found the grave had a large amount of clover covering it.
“There were blades of grass coming through where the dirt was,” Dionne said. “In my mind, next spring that will probably be all green. He (Dill) wasn’t satisfied with that and wanted something above and beyond. He wanted someone to scrape the dirt off, because it wasn’t to his specifications and wanted us to seed it. At this time of year, it would be awfully hard for grass to come up.”
Dill said he tried to address his problem with the town’s board of selectmen at one of their regular meetings, but was not given enough time to make his points. Nor was he satisfied with the efforts of the town.
“Usually a person gets two minutes for public comments, but the board gave them more than that,” Dionne said. “The board did not decide anything at that time.”
Dionne added the town has a limited amount of funds for cemetery care. The town does not charge a yearly fee for perpetual care of its cemetery, nor does it have a town position for cemetery care. The town does the general maintenance, such as mowing and trimming.
The town manager added there is nothing preventing Dill from bringing in his own topsoil, seed or sod to replace what is there.
“If we seed his plot, in fairness, we would have to seed everyone else’s,” the town manager said. “We just don’t have the funds. If he wants to go above and beyond, by all means, he can.”
Two regular board meetings have since been scheduled, but were unable to be held due to a lack of a quorum, Dionne said. The next regular meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 23.
