Town might limit burial reservations

The Town Board is considering placing limits on the number of burial plots that one person or an organization can reserve at the Town of Rhinebeck Cemetery.

At a board meeting Monday, town Cemetery Committee Chairwoman Suzanne Kelly said a nonprofit organization wants to reserve about 220 plots at the cemetery.

“The mission of the foundation is to serve the needs of ... people who food insecure to care for their pets,” she said. “The burial plots are for people, not for pets.

“There’s actually a lot of other family plots in the old part of the cemetery that are also very big,” she added.

Among those reserving a section of the cemetery for family members was Levi Parsons Morton, a former U.S. vice president under Benjamin Harrison and New York state governor who served from 189596. Morton, a Rhinebeck resident, died in 1920.

“Levi Morton’s plot is really quite large ... probably around 60 or 70 of today’s plots could fit into that size,” Kelly said. “So it’s not unprecedented for cemeteries to have this large area for ... one entity to purchase.”

Cemetery Committee members estimate there is space available for 3,500 burial plots and enough property that can accommodate another 7,700 plots with some preparation. Kelly said there has been a slow, consistent rate of plot reservations over the past several decades.

“It would be over 200 years before we were done,” she said.

Kelly noted that reserving a plot is not the same as purchasing the property.

“The thing with the plot (is) you don’t own the plot,” she said. “You own the right to be buried there.”

Kelly said estimates that the cemetery has between 7,000 and 12,000 occupied grave sites is expected to be narrowed after the association installs software that organizes historical documents.

Town Supervisor Elizabeth Spinzia asked whether limits should be based on the percentage of available plots.

“If we set it at a percentage rather than a number I think were more protected,” she said.

Town officials plan to review whether there are existing laws limiting the space that can be reserved at a cemetery and will also have the committee review the estimate of available plots.