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<\/a>Judson Star repairs an 1800s-era gravestone at Arundel Cemetery in Kennebunkport. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\nIn about half of the towns he works in, there are dedicated volunteers who work alongside him tackling simpler tasks like cleaning or righting a leaning stone. They ask him questions, and he is always happy to lend a tool. He likes it when they tell him about the histories of the people buried there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of things that you could know about preservation, and there are hundreds of stones that need to be worked on in each town,\u201d he said. He teaches the enthusiastic some of his skills, so they can be a little more self-sufficient with ongoing cemetery maintenance.<\/p>\n
NEED FOR REPAIR\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are more than 7,800 cemeteries in the state, including historic and modern burial grounds, family cemeteries and single graves, according to Walter Guptill, president of the Maine Old Cemetery Association.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople buried their family members up on the hillside,\u201d he said. Over time, roads changed, and some were reclaimed by woods. About 1,200 still haven\u2019t been physically located, and that\u2019s after MOCA volunteers found 500 cemeteries over the last two years. <\/p>\n
Many of them are small, with 30 burials or fewer. Sometimes, it\u2019s just a grave or two, or a base in the middle of a field, Guptill said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The number of professional conservators pales in comparison to the preservation needs. Star is just one of about a dozen in the state, Guptill said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s often up to municipal employees, cemetery and conservation committees, descendants, historical societies and community volunteers to find and maintain these cemeteries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe gap is not a lack of interest or good intentions,\u201d Guptill said. \u201cIt\u2019s the shortage of trained people, reliable guidance, funding and organized local stewardship needed to care for thousands of cemeteries across Maine.\u201d<\/p>\n
LEARN TO DO NO HARM\u00a0<\/p>\n
MOCA hosts workshops and training to pass on the art of conservation to the people who are trying to keep local cemeteries alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lesson one is to do no harm, Guptill said. Lesson two is to only work within the limits of your training.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u2019s an adage among cemetery aficionados, Guptill said. \u201cMore damage is done in cemeteries by people with good intentions than by vandals.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Improper cleaning and repair techniques can cause permanent damage. Despite what one might think, bleach and other household cleaners shouldn\u2019t be used on gravestones, Guptill said. Over time, the residue causes discoloration. And if you don\u2019t use a soft bristle brush on marble, for example, you can take away parts of the surface, a phenomenon known as \u201csugaring.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are out there trying to make it better, and we want to harness that energy with the right skillset, so that people are not only doing good but doing good in the right way,\u201d he said. There\u2019s a risk in overcleaning, if you can imagine, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n To grow the pool of experts in the state, MOCA hosts two types of workshops: a one-day gravestone cleaning class and an annual, four-day repair boot camp. The nonprofit provides the instructor and materials. Towns can volunteer their cemeteries as training grounds, so overdue repair work gets completed.<\/p>\n The group also has training videos<\/a> and resources<\/a> for people who have lingering questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are three aspects of preservation work, according to Star: moving and lifting the stone, which he does with an aluminum tripod that can hoist up to a ton of weight; prepping the ground, often with gardening tools like shovels, tampers and loppers; and repairing the actual stone, which requires epoxies, mortar and lime.\u00a0<\/p>\n Star has spent about $10,000 on equipment over the past six years. He keeps a lot of it in the trunk of his truck. (He owns more than 20 orange Home Depot buckets, and keeps the components, like a plastic container of special sand, ready to mix mortar at a moment\u2019s notice.)\u00a0<\/p>\n He charges a per diem rate. \u201cTo fix a stone costs hundreds of dollars,\u201d he said. \u201cNot thousands.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Star recognizes that municipalities might not have more than a few thousand dollars for cemetery maintenance in any given year, with most of that budget eaten up by mowing and tree care costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n But proper cleaning techniques can be taught in a day, Guptill said, and you can see the results instantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHave the courage to start,\u201d Guptill said. \u00a0<\/p>\n START WITH ENTHUSIASM<\/p>\n Star began as an enthusiastic volunteer. Or rather, he started out as someone who didn\u2019t really think twice about cemeteries.\u00a0<\/p>\n But that changed when his wife\u2019s parents died in short succession, and both of them were buried in Arundel Cemetery.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNow that we had family there, there was a lot more connection,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re no longer just driving by.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He started helping out with fall and spring cleanups, picking up sticks and debris. He realized that cemeteries can be happy places, and that good people take care of them. He joined the board about 10 years ago, and in 2019, started his business, Maintain the Memory, cleaning gravestones locally. His town of Kennebunkport has 75 cemeteries, which kept him busy in the beginning.<\/p>\n<\/a>Judson Star is a professional gravestone preservationist, cleans the base of a damaged headstone at Arundel Cemetery in Kennebunkport Tuesday. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n<\/a>Star pieces together a broken gravestone dating to the 1800s. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n