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Date: 10/11/2023
CHESTER — The Hampden County sheriff’s community service program was out in force at Chester’s Fisk and Eastman cemeteries on Oct. 4 for cleanup and fence repair. The historical cemeteries, which are still hosting new burials, were moved to Bromley Road in 1964 from their original locations due to the construction of the Littleville Dam.
The crew of more than half a dozen staff and a dozen or so inmates started at 7 a.m. to clear invasive plants from the fence, mostly bittersweet, while former Selectman Richard Holzman cleared brush in his front-end loader. Sheriff’s staff also brought chainsaws to clear small trees around the fence.
Holzman has been working since August to clean up the cemetery, which has gravestones dating back to the mid-1700s and early 1800s. He had contacted the Sheriff’s Department for help.
“This sheriff’s department is outstanding — so organized, so methodical,” Holzman said. “People are nice and hard-working. It’s a good example of an opportunity to serve.”
He said the bittersweet was completely entangled in the chain link fence, but they took it all out: “They know what they’re doing.”
Holzman said working with new Chester Selectman Brian Forgue and the cemetery commissioners, he had contacted Smith Monuments in Westfield for an evaluation, and they said the cemetery could be used for another 100 years at the current pace of burials, “for generations to come.”
Once the brush is cleared away from the fence, Holzman said the fence will be repaired and painted black.
“It shows how we honor history,” Holzman said. “There’s a lot of history here.” He said the project was personally rewarding, a gift to him and to the town.
“We in Chester so much appreciate Sheriff [Nick] Cocchi and the people working for him. There are people working for him from the Hilltowns and Springfield who are so devoted to their work and their contribution,” Holzman said.
The work day at the cemetery, originally scheduled for a Saturday, was rained out a few times before the crew was able to get there. As work wrapped up at 1 p.m., Shelley Holzman brought the workers pizza from the Blue Note in Chester for lunch.
Mike Norgren and Brian Kearney were supervising the work day for the Sheriff’s Department.
They said they’ve done a little bit of work everywhere, including projects at Camp Moses in Russell. They’ve also agreed to come back to Chester to scrape and paint some of the railroad cars in the yard of the Historic Chester Railway Station Museum.