After almost an hour-and-a-half of discussion, one thing remains clear with Newcastle's cemeteries:

It's murky.

The Newcastle Board of Selectmen met Monday, Feb. 24 with the cemetery trustees and agreed to have the town attorney take a closer look at ownership and responsibility in regards to the town's cemeteries.

Lincoln Cemetery in particular was the focus of the meeting Monday.

Clayton Huntley, Newcastle's fire chief, was on-hand to represent the cemetery, which is privately-owned yet maintained by the town.

Huntley said that the lots had been reserved for a few select families. The fear, Huntley said, was that the town would take its position as caretaker and use that for a jumping-off point to secure spots for other people, as Newcastle has very few plots.

“They (the original families) had the foresight to buy land for family plots,” Huntley said. “Shame on the town of Newcastle if they think they can jump in.”

But, chairman Brian Foote said he can't imagine such a scenario arising and called for the matter to be cleared up.

Foote said that murkiness occurs around the edges of the agreement, but maintenance and ownership are two very separate things.

“Just because we maintain some of it, doesn't make it ours,” he said. “It would be like if someone maintained a part of the town; it wouldn't make it theirs.”

In the end the board agreed, 4-0, to turn the matter over to town attorney Peter Drum and the Lincoln Cemetery Association.

One of the issues with the cemetery was a sum of money given to the town years ago for what Huntley called safe-keeping.

The town has collected interest on the money, which it has then used for repairs and maintenance of the Lincoln Cemetery.

Selectman Pat Hudson said the money was one of the issues with the agreement.

“There are so many murky spots,” she said. “Should the town even spend money on a private cemetery? As a public servant it's my job to make sure we're not spending public money on a private entity.”