07/20/2025
Leaning tombstones.
As our cemeteries get older as are our volunteers keeping stones upright and level as well as keeping sinking graves topped up with topsoil and reseeding is becoming more of an issue each year.
Then there is the question, whose responsibility is it to maintain a grave lot? The monuments are clearly owned by the interment rights holder and the ground is clearly owned by the Cemetery.
In the interest of both parties it clearly is a shared responsibility to maintain both the stones and the grounds for generations to be proud of long into the future.
That being said one of the most currently obvious problems in this maintenance program is the older stones that were in the day (pre 1960) on a large concrete poured base up to a meter deep. The problem Is over time frost freezes to the side of the base and lifts it a bit every year, never quite settling all the may back each year. Eventually they become very unlevel and even to a point of being unstable. This situation cannot be properl addressed by without special equipment.
A few weeks ago I was privileged to witness a contractor properly addres this problem. He has a lifting device used to remove the stone from the base and sit it aside. He then lifts the large problem base out of the ground, no digging required. He then fills the the cavity with crushed rock properly compacted in 4” layers until the hole is full and at ground level again. Then a reinforced concrete slab is sit in place properly located and level. Then the stone is sit back in place. This is a permanent solution to an old problem.
There is a significant cost involved, between $350-$500 all materials supplied, depending on a few factors, size and number of stones repaired per job. This post is to inform families their are options to restore stones to best possible condition for the future.
The decision will require board approval and we are considering sharing this cost with the family going forward to preserve the past for the future as a well maintained cemetery. No work on any stone would be contracted without an agreement between the internment rights holder and the cemetery prior. In the case of no available family members left or not being willing or able to help with these costs the cemetery will do this work and pay for it when the condition becomes unstable, unsightly or unsafe, at the cemeteries discretion.
