Gloucester cemetery committee will ask the city for a yearly budget after a $10,000 to $15,000 quote to save three Langsford stones

Gloucester's City-Owned Cemeteries Advisory Committee heard Oct. 20 that it would cost $10,000 to $15,000 to properly reset three large gravestones whose base is washing away at Langsford Cemetery in Lanesville. Members said the city needs a yearly cemetery budget line in the Department of Public Works, and will send their maintenance plan to the mayor and every city councilor this budget season.

What happened

• A mason who met members at Langsford quoted $10,000 to $15,000 to lift three large stones, pour a concrete pad and put them back. Pouring concrete around the eroded bank instead would run about $2,000 to $3,000 a day for two or three days.
• The committee accepted its September minutes. No other votes were taken.
• Members said the DPW gives the committee about $3,000 to $5,000 a year out of its general budget, and that the city once had a cemetery budget line and dropped it.
• The committee is also writing a letter supporting the state's nomination of Lanes Cove Landing to the National Register of Historic Places, and heard that a business sponsorship program and the restoration of a Revolutionary War veteran's stone at Second Parish Burial Ground are in the works.

Langsford: the stones are fine, the hill is not

Two members reported on a site visit with a mason. The three stones themselves are in good shape, he told them, but the ground under them is eroding toward a gully, and packing dirt around them would just wash out again. His full fix, lifting the stones out with a crane, digging a concrete base and resetting them, came to $10,000 to $15,000. The cheaper option is to pull out the loose pieces and pour concrete inside a form around the bank, at a day rate of about $2,000 with two masons at $180 an hour, more with equipment. Members guessed two or three days, around $6,000, and agreed it would look "pretty awful" but would hold.

One smaller leaning stone could be reset with the committee's own tripod, if the committee still had the volunteers. "We lost the men who do the heavy lifting," a member said. Two new volunteers have asked to help, but with cleaning and photographing stones, not lifting them.

Asking the city for a budget

A member said the committee's long range maintenance plan was sent to the city last year and not looked at. The advice she got since: send it every year, and send a copy to each city councilor, who have backed the committee's Community Preservation Act grant requests. Members said CPA grants have paid for restoring historic stones in several cemeteries but no grant program pays for erosion work, and that National Register listing opens grants that require matching labor or cash the committee cannot raise.

"DPW needs a cemetery budget," a member said. Another said DPW Director Mike Hale has been generous, giving $3,000 to $5,000 a year from his own budget, but that there is no line to draw on. A starting line of $10,000, with the first year going to Langsford, was suggested. Members agreed city budgets are tight and the cemeteries are not at the top of the list, and that the committee should set priorities, historic stones first, so the list is ready when money comes.

The committee's one steady source is a local business that sponsors Langsford at about $500 a year, which a member said no longer pays for one stone. Members plan to ask local businesses to sponsor a cemetery each year.

What was decided

• September minutes: accepted by voice vote, from the meeting video.

What happens next

• The committee meets monthly; members said they want to invite the DPW director to the next meeting to talk about a cemetery budget.
• The fiscal 2028 city budget process has started. The committee plans to resubmit its maintenance plan and letter to the mayor and City Council.

Where to find the records

• Committee agenda, Oct. 20
• Meeting recording, on the city's 2026 Past Meetings page
• Committee members, city appointments page

How we did this: Cape Ann Current watched the meeting online and checked names against the agenda and the city's appointments page. These are our meeting notes, not the city's minutes.