Stoddard Trustees of the Trust Funds

Stoddard Trustees of the Trust Funds
7 PM, Friday, March 23 , 2024
ZOOM Meeting
Public welcome

In Attendance:
Trustees: David Lesser, Maureen Meyer, Dean Dorman
Members of the public: Terri LaRoche
Meeting called to order at 7:04 PM.
1) Approval of minutes - Minutes from the last meeting were posted on the website. Motion made to
approve the minutes. All approved.
2) Investment Policy – will be taken up at a later date. Dean felt he might have a draft of the policy in May
for our meeting. Terri thought maybe we should delay our regular May meeting until after town meeting
because of the town warrants and monies that may need oversight. This will be considered.

3) Elections – Any paperwork related to elections for this year will be dealt with as necessary by the
person currently up for election. Other terms are in order at this time.
4) Cemetery Fund – David explained that this is not the regular maintenance fund in the town budget. It is
specifically made up of funds from individuals to maintain or upkeep particular gravesites. When was a
Trustee she went back as far as 1941 in the town records to try to track the origins of the funds. Some
weren’t in there according to the Trustee records so we do have a few remaining on the list with no
definitions for their fund usage. This agenda item was prompted by a request by Jim Anderson, currently
head of cemetery committee, about the use of these funds. David said nobody has asked for any money
from these funds in the past so this has prompted the current review by the trustees.
felt there were some funds with issues. The only one on the spreadsheet without a problem is Minnie
Albee. Terri thinks we need to look at each fund and see if we want to accept what the previous trustees
indicated and accept the definitions as such unless proven different in the future. Some of the funds Terri
was able to access through the Town Reports thinking that the Town Report should have accurate
information for us to trust the intent.
David asked if the information that was uncovered was directly from the Town Reports. Terri said the
ones she is confident of were found in the Cemetery Commission files and the Trustees and Town Reports
from the 1940’s. The trustees at the time seemed to have differentiated the directives so they had to have
had some guidance to place in their reports.
David asked what is the Old or New Cemetery as we no longer seem to have those names on town
cemeteries? He is worried that we could be in trouble based on assumptions about which cemetery the
account was referring to. Terri felt we could find the headstones and we could probably provide the
guidance necessary to determine which cemetery and where those lots are. We could add that to the
details on the spreadsheet Terri created.

David asked Dean if he had sent the cemetery group the report Terri indicated? Dean said yes. David
suggested that since they have this report they just need to find the correct current name for each
cemetery in order to determine which cemetery these lots are in. Terri added that she did ask about the
microfilm where the old information is still kept. Michelle, Town Administrator, may slowly but surely be
having Vicki go through them. This could help the cemetery commission. If they can name the cemetery
then we could say we would accept the 1945 definition of the cemetery. Some may have to be
investigated further and have us see the documentation because it mentions two funds where there is
only one. Another indicates interest only on the fund – so what does “might be” mean. Need to find out
where the lots are but we need documentation before any funds are disbursed.
Maureen agreed with Terri that the lots need to be found before any money is disbursed. Maureen also
mentioned that there are maps that list who is buried in what lot and who owns what plot.
Dean thought that taking some of the smaller amounts might be worthwhile spending down so that it
would cut the list in half. Also, this might be a way for the Cemetery Commission to come to a decision to
go to a judge if the definition cannot be found. It would cut down on how many they might need to do that
with. All agreed that the Cemetery Commission should have this information with the definitions. All said
it is not up to the Trustees to track down the definitions. We just oversee the funds.
David suggested he talk to Jim to encourage the Commission to use the spreadsheet to determine how to
use the funds in the manner for which they are meant. This would help them to understand what the
funds are actually for and hopefully help them to use it to spend the funds. Dean agreed they may not
know what the information we sent them actually means so David should have that discussion with them.
We agreed that David would get in touch with Jim sometime next week. He will go through it all himself
and then encourage Jim to use Emerson McCourt fund which has thousands of dollars in it unused, and
then discuss the other funds with him.
It was asked - do we want the Cemetery Commission to go back and find the will from 1942 or 44 or
whatever and look at it or do we want them to just find the name of the actual cemetery and we can just
change the name in the file to the right cemetery? David felt that if they could name the correct cemetery
then the funds should be used for that purpose. They just have to name the cemetery. We would then
notate it on the list.
The only funds that is not true for would be anything that may be an interest only fund. Also, David said if
there is nothing on that person, the Cemetery Commission will have to either find the documentation or
go through legal to go to court and they will have to pass along the court order for us to update our list.
He will pass this information along to Jim as well.
David will try to take notes and report back to us as to how the meting went.
6) Google Docs Account – Maureen started setting that up. That Google account is currently a central
repository and we have to log in to it as the Trustee. Maureen will try to set up a workgroup to let people
access it rather than having to log in with that one account name and password. This way all of the
Trustees could access the account through their own email.
Terri suggested that when getting ready for the MS9 this year, Maureen would work with her on the part
that she normally did so that we can document the process for future trustees. All agreed.

Did March 27-April 4 get put in the calendar? This would be the declaration of candidacy time period and
it should be on the calendar. This needs to be added. March 1 general date to look and see who is up for
election and validate candidacy. Maureen will update the calendar.
The review of the Investment Policy will not actually get done until we actually approve a policy. So, that
will have to change on the calendar. Dean updated it already.
David added (and Maureen concurred) that Maureen is happy to work on the technology part of things so
no matter what you all want we can make it happen. This includes the important work for all future
trustees.
7) Warrant Articles – Dean and Terri were at the school meeting and what an item of note for the
Trustees was Article 4 which would put a $100,000 of surplus into the Building and Grounds Expendable
Trust. Not sure when they fund their items. This would be money coming out of the fiscal year so it could
be July 1 that the money may be sent over. Haven’t had that happen in quite a while. David asked – this
has nothing to do with the town meeting? Terri said that is correct, the school operates independently of
the town. It is a done deal. We should be getting $100,000 from them for that Trust. Need to contact the
school to make sure we get that check from them. Maureen asked if this was yearly? Only voted on just
for this year. And, as of right now they do seem to have about $170.000 so they will have all $100,000 to
put into the fund. Put in the calendar that in July we check with the town and the school if they have any
funds that need to be sent to us. Other funds don’t run by fiscal calendar, it is just the town and the school
that would be on the yearly schedule for July.
David asked if there was a possibility of any new funds being put together but the Selectman? Terri said
it may be possible because of the wording of some of the warrants as currently written. No matter how
that ends up this will be non-standard from past practice in terms of when money comes to the Trustees
as 1/1/25 would be the date of the possible disbursal. There are some other warrants that she is looking
at that might be new. David said it is a huge pain the neck to start a new fund at NHPDIP. He would want
to find out whether it is long term or short term. If it is short term, it might be easier to open a checking
account but if it is long term then we may have to go through the process with NHPDIP.
8) Little Big Forest – David asked if the Zeffey account still active? Terri said yes. She doesn’t know if it is
still actively being used but it is still open. She asked us to allow it to stay status quo for various reasons.
She would like the money to move back to the Trustees but there are other issues right now that it may
make more sense to leave it where it is right now. David just wondered if the money does come to the
Trustees, all of the various bills would have to be overseen as Terri did in the past and this was a big job.
So, how would this work for the Trustees? Terri said that she is hoping that she will be working closely
with Conservation Committee treasurer so that things are not onerous to the Trustees. David had some
suggestions about how this could be done with less continuous oversight, instead doing some quarterly
disbursals if possible. But, Terri doesn’t see that the constant requests for funds would be happening
because 2025 might be when the money would be brought back to the Trustees and there would be less
constant requests for fund disbursal. It would not be like it had been previously when they were
fundraising. Terri agreed that what had happened in the past is not something she wants to see happen
again for future trustees.
9) Other - Maureen asked whose responsibility is it to figure out whether all of the Cemetery funds
should be expended or not? It was agreed that it is the Cemetery Commission’s decision. Which also
brought up a discussion on why the funds haven’t been expended and that the money should be used for
the purpose for which it was designated.
Motion made to adjourn the meeting 8:10 PM. Second. All in favor.