SAUGUS — Riverside Cemetery in Saugus has less than 100 plots left before it reaches maximum capacity, former Cemetery Commission chair Dennis Gould said.
To remedy the issue, Gould is pushing to turn the Curley property — an undeveloped, 63-acre plot of land bordering Water and Walnut streets — into a new cemetery.
It’s an effort several years in the making.
Donated to the town for municipal use by its previous owner in the 1960s, Saugus Town Meeting first voted in 1969 to change the Curley property’s official use from municipal to both municipal and school, which allowed it to be used by both the town and school district.
Then in 2009, concerned about rapidly decreasing space at the 17-acre Riverside Cemetery, the Cemetery Commission broached the idea of turning full rights for the property over to the town in order to allow the plot of land to be developed into a new burial site.
At the time, however, talks surrounding what would ultimately become the town’s new Middle-High School had just begun, complicating matters as the district, unsure of where a new school might be built, wanted to hold off on relinquishing the property.
“The only big opposition was the school district, because at the time, they hadn’t picked a place where they were going to build a new school,” said Gould, now a member of the School Committee. “It had that verbiage in there — ‘municipal or school use’ — so it went to committee but was never voted on.”
Then in 2013, the article to transfer the property once again went to Town Meeting, where this time it was voted down after failing by eight votes to obtain the required two-thirds majority needed to pass.
While the town delayed making a decision on the property, Gould said time has quickly been running out for Riverside Cemetery.
With the hope of moving the project along, he’s requested that the School Committee vote to turn the land back over to the town during its meeting on Thursday.
“If we don’t come up with a plan, it won’t be long, maybe a year or two, before there’ll be no graves left for Saugus residents,” Gould said. “They’ll have to be cremated.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].
