Sixty-four cemeteries dot the landscape in Standish – a high number for any town, but especially one with a population of about 9,300 people.

While some of the cemeteries are maintained by the town sexton, others are kept up by private associations, which rely on the dedication of local people driven to preserve the history the plots contain. These days, however, some of the associations are struggling. Active membership is dwindling as older members die. Fewer volunteers are stepping up and maintenance costs continue to increase.

Fortunately for two cemetery associations, town councilors decided Wednesday to grant them the stipends they requested in the proposed 2009-2010 budget. The Steep Falls Cemetery Association would get $2,000 to help with a new fence and the Standish Village Cemetery would get $250 to help with maintenance. All donations to cemetery associations, libraries and social services agencies originally had been cut in Town Manager Gordon Billington’s budget, but town councilors voted to reinstate that funding Wednesday.

“I think we have the responsibility to support them,” Councilor Terence Christy said of the two libraries in town. “The users are up, and the Internet system is used to capacity.”

Councilors voted to add $2,000 for the Richville Library and $6,000 for the Steep Falls Library into the proposed budget.

For the social service agencies who were represented at a hearing for donation requests, too, councilors voted to provide funding, though some not at the level they requested.

But problems persist among the town’s cemeteries. Pam Slattery-Thomas, the sole active member of the Standish

Village Cemetery Association, said interest on perpetual care accounts the association holds is not enough to complete all the needed maintenance on the cemetery, including mowing, fixing gravestones and general cleanup.

Since the cemetery can no longer sell plots due to lack of space, this interest money and any money the town donates are the sole sources of income. Last year, Slattery-Thomas asked for and received $500 from the town.

“This year, although things are, if anything worse, I asked for half of that,” Slattery-Thomas said, “with the hopes that we can find more volunteer resources to help with the maintenance.”

As one of the oldest cemeteries in the town, the Standish Village Cemetery, on Oak Hill Road, holds the graves of some prominent townspeople, as well as veterans. The cemetery has stones dating back to the late 1700s.

“It is important for the Standish Village Cemetery to be maintained as a source of historic and aesthetic pride for the town,” she said.

Dana Edgecomb, curator of the Old Red Church Museum, said that some of the town’s cemeteries are abandoned. When abandoned cemeteries contain veterans’ graves, the town is required to take care of them, he said.

Around six years ago, the town hired a sexton, now Kenneth Brooks, to care for these abandoned cemeteries, he said. The historical society tries to keep track of where the town’s cemeteries are located, but some of them are quite remote.

Brooks was paid $1,000 this year, and the Town Council is yet to discuss his stipend for the coming year, said Billington.

Besides mowing, cemeteries often have fences that need to be cared for and headstones to be repaired. Sometimes trees fall in the cemetery or there is vandalism, Edgecomb said.

Though some associations are better off than others, all rely to some degree on volunteers.

“It’s awful hard to get people to volunteer to be on the associations,” Edgecomb said.

Steep Falls resident Jackie Dyer knows about the difficulty of finding volunteers. She and her uncle, Harold Warren, and one other woman are the only active members of the Steep Falls Cemetery Association.

“There’s not a whole lot of interest,” Dyer said.

Dyer and Warren are asking the town to help restore the fence around the cemetery, since it borders on Route 113, which is a scenic byway.

“That fence looks pretty dilapidated,” Dyer said.

The association gets income from sale of lots, interest from a perpetual care account and private donations, which are few and far between, Dyer said. With that money, they have to mow and maintain the roads and stones. Each mowing costs $700-$800, Dyer said, so finances are a big challenge for the association.

“We try to keep things up as best we can, but we have to economize too,” Dyer said, adding that she has put in many hours herself at the cemetery.

Some other cemetery associations in Standish aren’t in such dire straits. The Dow’s Corner Cemetery Association draws 10-12 people to its annual meeting and pays Neal Dow to maintain the cemetery.

Dow took over as superintendent from his uncle, who died in 1983. Dow continued an expansion project his uncle started, and the cemetery now has space for more than 2,000 lots.

Dow’s uncle also started a perpetual care account by contacting owners of lots and family members of people buried there to ask for $100 each for an account to provide interest for maintenance. For every new lot sold, $200 goes into the perpetual care account and $150 goes into the general fund.

“We are far from rich,” Dow said. “But we get along pretty good.”

At 69 years old, Dow said he would prefer spending more time traveling with his wife in their motor home, but since he digs graves, he never knows when someone will need him. Though no one is lined up to take over for him, Dow figured someone would come along.

“When the time comes somebody will do it,” Dow said.

Dow lives down the road from the cemetery and many of his family members are buried there. He and his wife have already bought their plots, he said.

In the past the town has given around $50 a year to the association, but Dow said that if they need that money for other things, he would get along all right. The perpetual care account provided the association with $1,600 in interest last year, and $1,650 came in from new burials. The mowing, cleaning and trimming cost $3,000.

Dow said it makes him feel good to keep the cemetery maintained. “It’s a satisfaction to me,” Dow said. “I guess that’s why my uncle always did it.”

Dyer said part of her interest in keeping up the cemetery is sentimental, as her father, uncle and other family members are buried there.

“It’s very important for people to be able to come to a cemetery if they have people buried there,” Dyer said. “To mourn or rejoice or whatever they need to do.”

Neal Dow replaces a flag at a veteran’s grave at Dow’s Corner Cemetery in Standish. As superintendent for the cemetery, Dow digs graves and completes maintenance tasks, which are funded by new burials and interest on a perpetual care account.Neal Dow visits the Dow’s Corner Cemetery for the first time this season. As superintendent, Dow digs graves and maintains the cemetery where many of his relatives are buried. With interest money from a perpetual care account and burial fees, Dow said the cemetery association is getting by without much of a town subsidy.Every year new flags are placed at veterans’ graves in Standish cemeteries. Though the town provides those flags and maintains some abandoned cemeteries, other cemeteries rely on the money raised from new burials and perpetual care accounts.