CARIBOU, Maine — Northern Maine Veterans Cemetery Chairperson Harry Hafford has big plans for the coming year and veterans seem to be pleased with the pending introduction of crypts to the cemetery grounds.
Grant funding through the VA will be used to install 100 double-layer crypts at the cemetery, meaning that veterans may be buried with their spouses.
Hafford is excited about the crypts for a few different reasons, including monetary ones.
Funding has been set aside through the VA for the “renewable” project, meaning that the cemetery will be able to purchase additional crypts when needed without private fundraising. Also, crypt burial does not require the purchase of a traditional casket vault, the price of which typically starts at over $1,000.
“It’s a huge savings for the veteran and their family,” Hafford described.
The veterans he’s spoken with see the new crypts as a welcome addition to the cemetery, and Hafford quickly noted that double-layer crypts are available to all veterans — whether or not they’re married.
“If a veteran is not married, they will still be eligible for a crypt,” the chairperson emphasized.
Crypts will serve as the base for the veteran’s headstone, or headstones for vets buried with spouses.
The first crypts of the cemetery will be placed in the lower portion of the cemetery near the Avenue of Flags, which Hafford thinks is an aesthetically nice area to begin placement.
The site still needs to be verified through test boring, as the crypts have drainage needs, but the crypts are slated for placement this coming year.
Also included in the 2015 VA grant are funds to erect three new niche walls honoring cremated veterans.
“Those niche walls are going to hold approximately 450 niches, and according to VA’s best estimates that will take us 10 years down the road,” Hafford stated.
Should there be remaining grant funds, Hafford hopes to put in footings for future walls.
Funding doesn’t come easy at the Veterans Cemetery, and all of the Cemetery Committee’s projects in 2014 have come through private fundraising — and they’ve done a lot of work this year.
The committee placed sidewalks around the Walls of Honor to increase accessibility to the site and but a binder on the road around the viewing area to seal up any cracks; the other half of the road will get its binder in 2015.
Seating also received a big boost in 2014, and efforts were doubled once Hafford and his crew saw how well received it was.
Originally, four aluminum benches were purchased for the ceremonies conduced at the cemetery, “But people loved them so much we bought four more,” Hafford said. A testament to just how well used the new seating is, Hafford’s wife ended up sewing bench cushions.
Staff and volunteers can transport the aluminum benches around the cemetery where they’re needed, but two new granite benches are going to stay put near the Avenue of Flags.
“I would have liked to order two more, but we didn’t have the money,” Hafford explained, adding his hopes that two more granite benches can be purchased down the road.
The pair of benches will be arriving in time for Memorial Day, and their gray granite will match those near the POW/MIA area of the cemetery.
Hopefully returning this spring, pending they fare the Aroostook winter OK, are the 50 flowering crab apple trees that were planted in 2014.
“As of fall, they were all surviving,” Hafford described cautiously. “Hopefully they’ll survive until the spring and we’ll have come color out here.”
A display of ingenuity, the cemetery also received a new storage shed in 2014 through the repurposing of a ill-functioning committal shelter.
“It didn’t work as a committal shelter, but we brought the frame down and enclosed it — it’s just great as a storage shed,” Hafford said.
Come the spring, the Avenue of Flags will rise once more, and Hafford is looking for names of 49 veterans to dedicate flags for. Last year, 35 flags were donated to the cemetery in the name of family and friends honoring veterans, but the cemetery will provide a flag should funds be unavailable to purchase one.
Only 49 names are honored on the avenue each year.
“The 50th is for all veterans,” Hafford said with a grin.
The Northern Maine Veterans Cemetery started with an idea and a dream — and that original grand vision is beginning to take shape through volunteerism, generosity and hard work.
“We need to do a few more things, but we’ll get there,” he said.
Some folks comment that the cemetery in Caribou is the nicest veterans cemetery they’ve been to, but Hafford chalks it up to the things his committee’s learned from the other state veterans cemeteries.
Bringing continuous improvements and careful care to the cemetery over the years are Chairperson Hafford, Vice Chairperson Dale McGlinn, Secretary Linda McGlinn, Treasurer Fred Ormezzani, Assistant Treasurer Joanna Gervais, and Board Members Dave Bell Sr., Andre Dumas, Raphael Guerrette, Wayne Little, Carl McGlauflin, Clarence McLaughlin, Andy Olson, John Noble, Roger Felix, Carl Smith, Denis Madore, Richard Brown, Larry Theriault, Jim Gehring and Lloyd Woods. Jim Mockler is an honorary member of the board, which has two openings.
Additional information about the Northern Maine Veterans Cemetery can be obtained by visiting www.maineveteranscemeterycaribou.org.
