Dalton Board of Health Approves Green Burial Verbiage

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
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DALTON, Mass. — The Board of Health approved wording for the green burial guidelines during its meeting on Wednesday. 
 
The guideline stipulates that "Ebola or any other diseases that the CDC or Massachusetts Department of Public Health deem unsuitable for green burials can not be approved by the town Board of Health." 
 
The board has been navigating how to include communicable diseases in its guidelines to prevent them from spreading.  
 
Town Health Agent Agnes Witkowski has been working to clarify the state's guidelines regarding infectious diseases and green burials. 
 
She attended a presentation on green burials and consulted with people from various organizations, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where it was determined that the state is behind in developing guidelines for green burials.
 
Currently, the only disease that would prevent someone from being able to have a green burial is ebola, board member Amanda Staples-Opperman said. Bugs would take care of anything else. 
 
The town running into situations surrounding an unknown disease would be a very rare occurrence, board members said. 
 
The approved guidelines take into account any new disease that may emerge or a list of diseases released by the CDC or state, the said. 
 
Anybody doing green burials would stay up to date on state regulations if they change just like how the Board of Health is staying up to date on regulations as they change, board member Cindy Geyer said.
 
Two out of the three members of the cemetery trustees attended the Board of Health meeting on Wednesday to clarify what it needs from the Board of Health. 
 
"There are no regulations in Massachusetts specifically for green burials," Trustee John W. Bartels Jr. said.
 
There are approximately 150 communities in the state that allow green burials, but they all have different rules and have gone about it in different ways, he said. 
 
The cemetery trustees are still very early in establishing green burials. This excludes people who want to be buried in their yards, which would be a separate process. 
 
The trustees started exploring this initiative in April when they were thinking about updating fees. Bartels brought the option before the board after noticing that Great Barrington approved green burials in August 2020. 
 
Great Barrington is one of several dozen communities in the state that offer green burials, though it took three years to accomplish this. Stockbridge, Mount Washington, and the private Pine Grove Cemetery in Sheffield also allow natural burials. 
 
Green burials do not include a burial vault and use a wooden casket, biodegradable casket, or shroud, or cloth. 
 
A green burial could also be a bottomless vault, which is good because it does not allow for the ground to settle, Bartels said. Any of these methods allow for the body to decay into the ground. 
 
The trustees needed something from the Board of Health that addresses diseases so that it could be added to the cemetery's book of regulations.   
 
Bartels clarified that this is not a town bylaw; it is a cemetery regulation. 
 
The trustees hope to have the perc tests done by June. These tests will determine whether the decaying bodies will leach into the aquifer, he said. 
 
The trustees originally planned on having a designated section for green burials at Ashuelot Cemetery, Bartels said. 
 
They later decided that opening up the option for the entire cemetery is better because there will be cases where someone wants to be buried alongside a loved one who chose not to have a green burial, he said. 

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Letter: Is the Select Board Listening to Dalton Voters?

Letter to the Editor

To the Editor:

A reasonable expectation by the people of a community is that their Select Board rises above personal preference and represents the collective interests of the community. On Tuesday night [Nov. 12], what occurred is reason for concern that might not be true in Dalton.

This all began when a Select Board member submitted his resignation effective Oct. 1 to the Town Clerk. Wishing to fill the vacated Select Board seat, in good faith I followed the state law, prepared a petition, and collected the required 200-plus signatures of which the Town Clerk certified 223. The Town Manager, who already had a copy of the Select Board member's resignation, was notified of the certified petitions the following day. All required steps had been completed.

Or had they? At the Oct. 9 Select Board meeting when Board members discussed the submitted petition, there was no mention about how they were informed of the petition or that they had not seen the resignation letter. Then a month later at the Nov. 12 Select Board meeting we learn that providing the resignation letter and certified petitions to the Town Manager was insufficient. However, by informing the Town Manager back in October the Select Board had been informed. Thus, the contentions raised at the Nov. 12 meeting by John Boyle seem like a thinly veiled attempt to delay a decision until the end of January deadline to have a special election has passed.

If this is happening with the Special Election, can we realistically hope that the present Board will listen to the call by residents to halt the rapid increases in spending and our taxes that have been occurring the last few years and pass a level-funded budget for next year, or to not harness the taxpayers in town with the majority of the cost for a new police station? I am sure these issues are of concern to many in town. However, to make a change many people need to speak up.

Please reach out to a Select Board member and let them know you are concerned and want the Special Election issue addressed and finalized at their Nov. 25 meeting.

Robert E.W. Collins
Dalton, Mass.

 

 

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