LYNNFIELD — When it comes to maintaining and preserving Lynnfield’s five cemeteries, John Tomasz sometimes feels like he traded his public works director title in for historian and archaeologist.
The town’s two active cemeteries, Willow and Forest Hill, need regular landscaping and cleaning, as well as planning for eventual expansions. But Lynnfield’s historic burial grounds also need careful tending as well as an expert’s occasional touch to repair gravestone damage. Public Works director for more than two years, Tomasz said he draws extensively on his previous experience as the city of Salem’s public works director to devise plans for maintaining the burial grounds. “Cemeteries are a place you want to always be presentable so people know they are in a special place,” he said.
Located across from Lynnfield Common, West burial ground dates back to 1813 and Old West’s graves, including stones marking the resting places of town pioneers like the Hawkes family, date back to 1775. Old South burial ground also dates back to Lynnfield’s founding.
Located away from the town center, Old South dates back to Lynnfield’s origins when the town center and a scattering of farms were surrounded by fields. Tomasz said the oldest town cemeteries were built near churches.
Many of their gravestones, like the Hawkes grave markers, are in good condition. Others need specialized maintenance to reverse centuries of exposure to wind, rain and snow.
Lynnfield Historical Society President Linda Gillon formerly served on the town historical commission and recalled periodic town requests to hire a stone preservation expert to repair cracked graves.
Tomasz said specially-designed rods are placed in old stones to prevent them from crumbling and falling apart.
“It’s really expensive. But it makes sure monuments are intact,” he said. The town’s active cemeteries present different, sometimes more complicated, challenges. Tomasz assigns one of his 14 workers to cemetery maintenance and boosts this number to five or six employees for additional upkeep work, including Memorial Day cleanups and seasonal spruce ups.
He said town workers strike a balance between keeping Willow and Forest Hill mowed and watered and respecting grave owners’ individual burial adornments, including planting and stones or other personal objects laid on gravestones.
“The town’s been very good in supporting Public Works. The townspeople have been excellent to us,” he said.
Between 40 and 50 burial lots are sold in the town’s active cemeteries annually, and Tomasz said Willow and Forest Hill will eventually need to be expanded to provide space for additional burial plots on land that isn’t marsh or located over ledge requiring expensive blasting.
“We have about 10 years left,” he said.
