The Rosetown Town Council are responding to a concern at the town cemetery.

Pierre Charpentier has been butting heads with the Rosetown Town Council for several months over the lack of proper upkeep at the cemetery.

Among the issues brought to light were, out of control weeds, a 400-pound granite monument that had been tilted by a lawnmower, and the sprinkler system, which hasn’t been working since the 1980’s.

Charpentier brought these issues up to Town Council back in June, and Mayor Subhas Maharaj promised to investigate his complaints.

During the August meeting of the town Recreation Committee, Charpentier appeared again to request upgrades to the sprinkler system, which helps to maintain the aesthetic appeal of the cemetery. While the council is not opposed to irrigating the cemetery, it’s the cost of the water that’s standing in the way. When the water treatment plant received a new system, costs became too high for watering the cemetery to be feasible.

Trevor Hay, Chairman of the Recreation Committee, discovered that the Rosetown Cemetery is unique, in it’s use of a sprinkler system.

“So we did a little research to see if any other small towns have a sprinkler system operating, and to our surprise, there isn’t any. No one with a smaller cemetery in towns actually has a sprinkler system in their cemeteries. It probably has to do with money, it seems to be that cities are the only ones that have sprinkler systems.”

Along with the cost of the water, Hay stated that other costs would arise along the way.

“You couldn’t repair it, you’d have to redo the whole sprinkler system, so the cost of that, to redo the whole sprinkler system, plus costs of water, and now doing research to find out that there isn’t any other towns that water their cemetery, kind of led us to the conclusion that it’s something we probably shouldn’t do, unfortunately. It’d be nice to do it, but it’s just not feasible.”

Charpentier shared why he thinks proper care of the cemetery is so important.

"The cemetery is a park, for one thing, but it's also the final resting place of the people of Rosetown and area who built this area from nothing into what it is today, and there needs to be a little bit more respect shown with our local cemetery."