PEABODY — Proposed changes at Cedar Grove Cemetery have garnered push-back as the city looks to expand the popular South Peabody burial ground.
The cemetery, owned by the city and reserved for residents, currently has 15-20 graves still for sale before it runs out of room, prompting plans to add 229 new graves there in the coming months, Mayor Ted Bettencourt said at Thursday’s City Council meeting.
The new plots will go in sections K1 and K2 on the left side of the cemetery near the Meadows Golf Course and past a chapel. The land for the new plots was already owned by the city and not a part of recent purchases of open space.
While officials hope to start work on the expansion in November and a request for proposals for the project attracted interest, no companies submitted bids. The deadline for bids has been extended to mid-October and is drawing more interest from different companies, Bettencourt said.
“I was a little surprised we didn’t get some action with some bids on it, but I think we’re going to get some now,” he said.
Bettencourt looks to get some work done before the worst of winter hits, then finish up the remaining work in the spring.
It will cost $315,000 in funds already approved by the city for the project to remove ledges, install a foundation and add the openings to plots.
But the expansion itself isn’t the issue with neighbors. It’s the lack of presales.
The cemetery is temporarily not allowing presales of graves, a change that Cemetery Commissioner Conor Morgan is seeking to make permanent. The policy being reviewed by the city’s Cemetery Commission and is expected to come up for discussion at the board’s next meeting.
That meeting hasn’t been scheduled yet, but is anticipated to be in the middle of October, Bettencourt said.
“Having (presales) available for our residents, I think, is important, but so is making sure we have graves available when people who do pass away in the city of Peabody. That they’re not all taken up by presales,” Bettencourt said.
About 15 residents, including School Committee member Beverley Griffin Dunne, attended a Cemetery Commission meeting earlier this month to share their concerns.
For a commission that rarely has attendants at its meetings other than officials, the Sept. 18 meeting was particularly packed and at times emotional, said Ward 4 Councilor Julie Daigle, who also was there.
Residents said presales provide comfort and security in knowing their final resting place will be somewhere pleasant that is tied to home. Some said they didn’t have children or any family members remaining to plan their funerals, making presales essential for the task.
“I walk that cemetery at least once a week,” Daigle said during Thursday’s Council meeting. “I’ve got grandparents there. We take a lot of pride in being there and my family would take a lot of pride in knowing that for our future, we have some kind of security and commitment there.”
The matter of presales is up to the Cemetery Commission to decide. At-Large Councilor Jon Turco said he hoped the commission could at least allow a percentage of the lots to be put up for presale. That way, graves are still left for those who need one immediately.
Residents were also concerned by the cemetery’s plan to place headstones back-to-back in the new section rather than side-to-side, as is seen everywhere else in the cemetery. Also, that the cemetery isn’t planning to let residents choose their own lots.
All of that is up for debate between the Commission, too.
Cemetery Commissioner Celeste Sullivan said at Thursday’s meeting she is in favor of presales and keeping headstones aligned how they have always been at Cedar Grove.
“I’m looking forward for this to move forward because we want to serve the people of our community,” she said. “We want to make sure they have a place to go.”
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com.