Seekonk Select Board Identifies Three Cemetery Sites Amid Acute Plot Shortage

SEEKONK — October 19, 2015 — Seekonk Select Board narrows cemetery search to three sites as town nears legal crisis. With fewer than 19 burial plots remaining at the town's Newman Avenue Cemetery — down from nearly 100 a year ago — the Select Board held a work session Monday to review 66 town-owned parcels and identify candidate sites for a new cemetery, a requirement under Massachusetts General Law. Dave Cabral, acting director of Public Works, presented the parcel analysis, eliminating conservation land, landlocked parcels, and sites with active buildings before the board settled on three options: land behind Town Hall and the animal shelter on Peck Street, estimated at four to five usable acres and capable of yielding up to 4,000 plots; a private church cemetery on West River Avenue whose representatives had already informally signaled willingness to allow town use in exchange for maintenance of the grounds; and the Pleasant Street School field, ranked third because it would displace youth recreational programming. The chairman warned that with only 19 plots left, the town may already be unable to fulfill its legal obligation before any new site can open: "No matter what this board decides to do to make arrangements for the future, we're probably not going to make it."