This photo shows the Union Cemetery after the 1955 flood. This image is from http://electronicvalley.org/derby/flood/index.html
SEYMOUR — The Board of Selectmen is considering taking over a 178-year-old cemetery.
A member of the Union Cemetery Association recently asked if the town would be interested in acquiring Union Cemetery, established in 1842 on Derby Avenue.
Town Attorneys Richard Buturla and Bryan LeClerc said Corrine Sorrentino, the cemetery administrator, reached out because members of the association are elderly and are no longer able to keep up with the maintenance and operation of the cemetery.
Buturla said the cemetery, which is not affiliated with any church, currently has an annuity with about $44,000 remaining in it. He said after speaking with Sorrentino, he learned just one burial occurred there in all of 2019, and that it costs about $7,000 a year to maintain the property. That amount is broken down into $3,500 for landscaping, $600 for insurance and a $3,000 stipend for Sorrentino. The town currently contributes $1,000 annually for the upkeep of the cemetery.
Buturla said he didn’t have any data regarding the total number of plots there or how many plots are still available, other than a hand-drawn map. The size of the cemetery is unknown at this point, too, he said.
Sorrentino told the attorneys the association predicts it will run out of money within seven years. She was not immediately available for comment.
According to LeClerc, there is a state statute that talks about a town taking over an “abandoned cemetery,” but Union Cemetery is not an “abandoned cemetery” under the statute. Former First Selectman Kurt Miller, before he resigned last month, asked the town attorneys how the process of the town taking over a cemetery would work. Miller learned the town would be responsible for maintaining and managing the cemetery, as well as selling the remaining plots.
LeClerc said he wouldn’t recommend the town acquiring the cemetery. Miller concurred it would be best to reach out to another cemetery association in town, with experience in handling these things, rather than the town itself taking it over.
Miller had told the board he would speak with Trinity Cemetery Association to see if they’d be interested in acquiring Union Cemetery. Trinity Cemetery is located on West Street.
Several selectmen, including Selectman Bob Findley, said the board can’t make a decision on the request until it hears back about whether any other cemetery association in town wants to acquire the cemetery.
Buturla told the selectmen at their last meeting that LeClerc was also going to reach out to Trinity officials and report back.
First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis said the selectmen’s next meeting is Nov. 17. More info could be available by then.
Carlos French, a member of the U.S. Congress and the state House of Representatives in the late 1800s, is buried in Union Cemetery, according to this website.
The cemetery, which borders the Naugatuck River, was also badly hit by the Flood of ’55, causing several graves to be unearthed and taken down the river.
