Huntington Town seeks cemetery stewards

The Town of Huntington is seeking volunteers to work as cemetery stewards at its historic cemeteries. The volunteers will assess what needs to be done to spruce them up.

"It's incredibly important to preserve the historic cemeteries," said Councilwoman Susan Berland, sponsor of the resolution that created a cemetery stewards program. "If anything happens to them, we lose history. Learning the stories of the people buried there and making sure their final resting place is preserved and maintained is good for everyone."

There are about 56 historic cemeteries in the town, and Berland said she hopes to assign one volunteer to each.

"Their job would be to access the burial ground, see what kind of work needs to be done, whether it needs a cleanup, if there are headstones that are damaged," Berland said.

Volunteers will report to town officials about what needs to be done after an assessment.

The town expects to have a link on the town website for the steward program soon. Information is available from Berland's office at 631-351-3173.