Boston Council Committee Advances $1.26 Million for Cemetery Repairs and Digitization

BOSTON — April 17, 2024 — Boston council committee hears $1.26 million cemetery trust request covering fence, tree work, and record digitization. The Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by Councilor Brian Worrell, took testimony April 17 on a Mayor Michelle Wu-sponsored appropriation drawn from a cemetery trust fund holding roughly $19 million in principal. Thomas Sullivan, General Superintendent of Cemeteries, and Margaret Dyson, Director of the Trust Division, told the panel the funds would repair the historic wrought iron fence at Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan, digitize more than 250,000 burial records currently kept on paper, and expand tree work across all three active sites. Sullivan said the 2021 conditions assessment found an $11 million maintenance backlog and warned that the city has only five to seven years of burial space remaining — a window that could shrink to three to five years if a neighboring private cemetery closes. The committee took no formal vote; the matter remained under advisement.