Cemetery panel OKs $40,000 digitization request

Cemetery Committee · Meeting of August 25, 2026

HADLEY — The Hadley Cemetery Committee voted unanimously to seek $40,000 in Community Preservation Act funding to digitize the town's cemetery maps, cards and deeds. Chair Alan Weinberg said the effort is urgent because Gary Berg, who holds the original maps and tracks burial locations largely from memory, plans to retire at the end of 2026. Members Gerry Harvey, Kate Kentfield and Mary Thayer joined Weinberg in a 4-0 roll-call vote; the request now goes to the Community Preservation Committee for a September 14 vote and, if approved, to Town Meeting on October 22.

The committee separately authorized Weinberg and Thayer to pursue a bronze plaque, estimated under $5,000, commemorating a 1935 WPA stone fence at the Hockanum cemetery. Weinberg said "something that requires professional restoration ... is not maintenance," as members began planning a future CPA request for ongoing gravestone repairs, citing roughly $200,000 spent on major restorations over the past four to five years.

In the full story:

• Fence Repairs and Old Business
• Digitization of Cemetery Maps and Records
• Boston Tea Party Museum Ceremony Honoring Jeremiah Cady
• Hockanum Stone Fence Memorial Plaque
• Gravestone Restoration Funding
• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report: 2,285 words

Source: the Cemetery Committee meeting of August 25, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript.