Trustees of Soldiers and Sailors Memorials - Regular Meeting

good evening and welcome to the april 23rd meeting of the trustees of soldiers and sailors memorials uh on zoom tonight we have lucas remillard in the room andy jefferson carmen taglione all right so because we're getting close to the go time for the parade i want to go down the And then when I get down the list, we can go over anything I may have missed or anything you want to cover. So as far as I have from past meetings, the Legion and the VFW are on board. Knight's Limousine has been contacted. AA Transport is on board. The sound system has been secured from the town. Jerry is going to show up with his jeep. I have reached out to the troop commanders for the Boy Scouts. No response. Zero. Really? Girl Scouts responded within five minutes. Should we contact... Well, Holly gave me... Holly, who's a member of the Veterans Committee, sent me the links to the troop leaders, and so they're valid. What I'm going to do is I'm going to try some other people I know that are actually... He probably can't hear any audio. You can't hear anything, Lucas? I can't turn on this audio. Hey, Bill, if you can hear me, so I know two other people.

Oh, I got you on this?

Yeah. Yeah, we jumped the gun. You're all set. Good, Lucas?

What a nice night. Oh, you're paying the big bucks. You still good, Lucas? Yeah, I can hear you. OK, good. All right.

So as I was saying, I have two of the people I know that are actually in those troops, so I'll reach out to them and see if we can get them contacted by hook or crook.

I can help with that too.

Okay, cool. The wreaths are in storage, clean, ready to go. The large wreath for this year's ceremony is all set up.

It's going to be between $325 and $350. Okay.

Color Guard is on board. We know that too. Flags for the cemetery placement. We know that's all set because Carmen usually handles that.

And Jeff just got the flags recently, I think.

Yeah, he reached out to me to ask about new flag holders. I have. FLAG HOLDERS? THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT. I CAN CHECK THE E-MAIL. HE REACHED OUT. MAYBE IT WAS 100. WHO KNOWS. MAYBE I SAID, BUY 1,000. NO. HE REACHED OUT AND SAID HE NEEDED NEW FLAG HOLDERS AND WANTED TO KNOW IF WE HAD THE MONEY IN THE TRUSTEES BUDGET. AND I SAID, YEAH, JUST GO FOR IT.

OKAY. I'LL GET AN ACTUAL NUMBER. Someone might not have one.

So then maybe the number's closer to 100.

One or 2,000? Yeah. Someone who doesn't have a flag holder. I mean, I got about six or seven of them at the post I can help out with.

On the flags, do you have volunteers? Excuse me? Do you have the volunteers for the flags?

Well, we have some people that will go from, step out on the post. The VFW does the cemeteries. in South Grafton, and so the past few years, all we really need to do is a couple of the big cemeteries, Pine Grove, Riverside, and the one across the street there. Now, as a matter of fact, Andy took care of that last year, St. James or whatever it is, St. Phillips or whatever it is now, and the Boy Scouts. And people get the word. I mean, we had a, there was a mailing last year I forget my glasses in the truck every time I come here. But anyways, there was a memo put out and it gave the dates. Adult volunteers will start flag placement on May 23rd. Did you have that? It was from Andy. You want to borrow? I don't need it anymore. I can whip it up and give it to you.

Yeah, because what I'll do is I'll scan it.

But it was from Andy Shelburne. He had lined it out by cemetery there and times and everything else. He might want to go with that same format again. And then I don't know who else he put that out to. It was an email.

We always, what was the cemetery we ended up at over on, off of Millbury Street? What was that one?

St. Philip's?

Is that it? St. Philip's? St. Philip's.

That's Riverside and St. Philip's over there. Yeah.

All right. And we got the, I don't know if I can jump in. Yeah, go ahead. The State Hospital Cemetery. Okay, there's some question about that from Aunt Marie Foley sent me an email. Someone came to her and said, who's taking that? that cemetery this year. Last year... Taken care of by placing flags or taken care of? Taken care of, period. We can put the flags on it. There's only like 15 we put out there, but the condition of the place was taken over by Shrewsbury last year because it's on the Shrewsbury-Grafton line. It's been neglected. And Jeff had gotten people from Shrewsbury Totally take care of it. We usually just do around the flagpole. They cleared out the whole thing where all the stones are and everything. And I was with Jeff last week and he said he thinks that's going to happen again.

Yeah, that's what Jeff and Daryl told us last year because the state came in and is also providing money for it. So we were able to get that taken care of long term. But I think their plan is they come out twice a year, before Memorial Day and before Veterans Day.

Okay, so they're going to do it again. Jeff wasn't 100% sure they were going to do it again.

That's... That is what Darryl told me. I asked him several times last year. He was like, yes, this is the plan.

That's how I've heard it, too.

Yeah.

Very good. Should we just reach out to Darryl? Yeah. Have Darryl and the Shrewsbury, his counterpart in Shrewsbury, verify. Yeah, that's probably the smart thing to do.

So there was a woman. who contacted Ann Rick Foley anyways, and she was concerned about some invasive plants that are there or something. Oh, sustainable grafting? I don't know what that's all about, but... I mean, if you're going in to clear the site, you're clearing the site. Yeah. So that's why she...

I'll reach out to Darryl. It was probably, yeah, I'll reach out to Darryl. It was probably Sustainable Grafton.

Might have been.

Because that's what she's a big part of, I think. Yeah.

All right. I sent out a group email to the members of the select board requesting their participation. Did you get that?

We did. Okay. And we also need to talk because DAVE GLISPIN, THAT PUBLIC COMMENT IN OUR MEETING TUESDAY OFFERED UP HIS FLAT BED FOR US TO BUILD A FLOAT OFF OF OR STAND ON OR WHATEVER FOR BOTH MEMORIAL DAY AND 4TH OF JULY. SO THERE YOU GO. BRING THAT UP AT THE OTHER ONE, TOO. OKAY.

BASED AT A PAST MEETING, WE ALREADY CONFERRED WITH CARMAN THAT THE HONOR RULE TO BE READ ALOUD IS CORRECTED UP TO THE MINUTE. SO WHAT ARE WE MISSING?

You had asked me about Corvettes, convertible cars and everything. I have four Corvettes secured for that Memorial Day. I'm pretty sure he'll read, but he can't do anything else. He needs to ride in the car, and then we get him to the common or wherever we're going to get him. And he might only want to just go to the common, not do any of the readings at Quincy or the bridge. He might not want to be part of the detail early in the morning, maybe just the common. That's up to Walter.

He'll have a ride wherever he wants to go. If I recall correctly, when he gets to the common, he reads the soldier's prayer, right?

He usually reads the soldier's prayer and the first part of Landers field yeah well we get the boys go to landers field and America's answer yeah and there's the honor roll and then that's up in the air for whoever we want to do that it could be Walter he's has a good strong And then we have one that Walter usually reads. It's somewhat of a poem. It's called The Soldier. It's the soldier, not the minister.

I always thought that was the soldier's prayer.

It could be called that. I don't know. It's written by Charles M. Providence, a veteran of the U.S. Army or something like that. And then we have the Siemens prayer that we do at Waterville Street on the bridge where we put the wreath in. And we usually have a Navy guy do that, like Dan Howard or any other Navy guy. And I think that's it for the prayers.

Okay. All right, so we know that Walter will do at least one reading, possibly two. And then as we get closer to the date, we need to figure out if he's only going to do the one, who can we get? THIS IS A MOCK UP OF AN INVITATION THAT I WANT TO SEND OUT TO PEOPLE. SO I'LL PASS THIS AROUND. YOU CAN TELL ME IF YOU THINK IT'S OKAY OR IF YOU WANT TO UPDATE IT. IT'S THE TITLE OF THE TOPS IS HONORING THE FALLEN MEMORIAL DAY 2026. PLEASE JOIN GRAFTON'S VETERANS, THE VETERANS ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND FELLOW CITIZENS AS WE GATHER TO HONOR AND REMEMBER THOSE who have made the ultimate sacrifice and service to our nation. We invite you to a day of reflection, gratitude, and community spirit. Monday, May 25th, 2026. Parade arrives at the Common approximately 11.30 a.m. That's where I was kind of fuzzy. I couldn't remember.

Yeah, that gives us time for some speakers. But it doesn't really matter if you go over or you're under a few minutes.

So I'm going to get those. So I got the time right at least. So that's good. So I'm going to get those out to the state rep, the state senator, anybody I can think of in town that would like to get an invitation. Because what I'm trying to avoid is the people who call town hall and say, we didn't know there was a Memorial Day ceremony. Yeah.

I'M SORRY.

ANYWAYS, HOW ABOUT THE BAND?

THE HIGH SCHOOL BAND. THE HIGH SCHOOL BAND. YEAH, I GOT MR. TROMBLEY ON THE LIST, BUT I DON'T KNOW IF HE'S BEEN REACHED OUT TO YOU.

I REACHED OUT TO HIM. I THINK I SENT THE SECOND MESSAGE. AND I THINK, UNFORTUNATELY, MY TIMINGS ARE ALWAYS LIKE THE LAST. THE FIRST TIME IT WAS LIKE SCHOOL BREAK OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT. THE SECOND TIME, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT WAS, TEACHER'S DAY OR SOMETHING. BUT I WILL TRY. I'M GOING TO KEEP PINGING HIM.

to the town meeting so that they could do the national anthem. So that might be another way to contact them. I'll ask her if she can. So we have 90% of this done already. We just have to get a couple of loose pieces in place and I think we'll be okay. We're gonna follow, we're obviously gonna follow the same format that you handed down to us.

Okay, the detail and the parades.

Yeah, so I have that list. I've concentrated mostly on just what's going to happen at the Common. Okay. So I highlighted from 1115, everyone meets at North Street, and then it goes from there. So we'll follow that format. I watched a lot of the old videos to get a feel for how the flow went. And I think what we should do is probably our last meeting next month. I want to do like a rehearsal or a table read to make sure that we don't miss any of the, I mean, I know you'll be there and help us out if we overlook something, but I want it to go as smoothly as possible. So I prepared opening remarks at the start of the ceremony. And then from there, the next thing is to turn and turn it over to you for whatever official you know, military ceremony there might be or what, you know, you call the sergeant to arms and all that stuff. And it's the back and forth between you and I as we go through the day that we probably need to practice a bit because we've never done it before. And as I say to everybody I talk to, I don't want to screw it up. Yeah, you don't want to screw it up.

It's just a... It flows pretty good.

Yeah.

You know, you just get to the common and you just...

we're good with this no changes everybody yeah you're going to send those a bunch of those out to yeah i ordered uh i think i ordered 100 invitations because i could use them for both memorial day and fourth of july so i've covered two birds with one stone and then the opening remarks i timed out to like a minute and 12 seconds it'll be really short so i think what i what i did in the past is i

Henry Foley the past couple of years, or it might be David Meridian or something. Somebody will read the governor's proclamation if it's available. I don't think we had one last year. I think we did. Did we have one? Yeah, we did.

I think Ian read it.

I think so. Did we have a proclamation last year? So someone will need to read the governor's proclamation. I'm saying. at some point when we call the sergeant of arms up to shoot the weapons and stuff, that's at the end of the ceremony anyways.

Okay. So have you heard from Meridian? No, I have not, which was the purpose of the invitations, because if I put those in the mail coming up this week, I'm hoping that'll... Yeah, you got to, although he lives in Grafton and he loves coming here,

He's got three towns, and it's whoever grabs him first. And then how about Senator Moore?

Yeah, he'll get the same invitation, although he always ends up in Millburn.

He shows up unannounced sometimes, too.

Right at the time. 11.30? I will be there at 11.30 and 30 seconds.

Oh, you're here? Okay.

Yeah, you never know he's there.

Chief of police, I always invite those guys. And I would like, did they ever put a color guard together, the police department or the fire department? I mean.

No, I don't think, the fire department didn't,

together. It might be a good ask for the fire department because don't we have a full-time chief? Don't we have a full-time assistant or whatever? A lieutenant?

What I'm saying is if you don't have a fire department co-director, you have to scramble to put one together.

Well, you could at least maybe get a bunch of the guys to put their whites on and line up.

Last year, the motorcycle guys were great. They moved this real quickly, the detail through the town. last year, so hopefully, I think Chief Minardi, he's a veteran, I believe, isn't he? I think so. I think he is, yeah.

Now, he, him and his troops showed up at Pine Grove. Yeah, they... Did they tell you ahead of time they were coming? No, that was a surprise. I didn't know they were coming to put out flags either.

That was great. Okay. Had about six or seven of them down there.

Because I believe, ahead of time, all we knew about was, you know, folks from the post, some townspeople and some boy scouts and girl scouts. I didn't know the police were there. That might be another ask.

Do you have those schematics of the cemeteries that Andy puts? I didn't have

I can always get it from Andy. I think I turned him back in after we placed the flag.

He said he has it on his computer. He does.

He gave us the data drive.

Right. Somebody should have that.

Is Artie Heavitt going to be with his truck? Artie Heavitt. He has that white pickup truck that I thought you got into a couple times.

I don't know. I didn't know his name.

He doesn't have that truck anymore.

He's got a black one. It's just, you know.

I know that he, because he said something to me before that somebody rode with him.

Yeah.

In the back.

Yeah, it was usually me. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

But I'll be busy. Okay. But we'll have somebody there. So whether they walk with the camera or if they just stand at the common one way or the other, we'll cover.

Addy will probably set his truck up, the new truck up. It's smaller than his white truck is.

He just turns around and says, anybody need a ride? And it's been done before, but he's usually there.

Yeah, I haven't seen him lately, but.

He's okay. I can talk to him. Yeah, see if he wants to do that. I'll ask him, are you going to do anything with the pickup truck with anybody that needs a cameraman or whatever? He always says he's done it.

Yeah. On the truck for the post and for the VFW. Okay. All right.

I went through my shopping list, so I don't have anything else.

Two things. Did we nail down the honorees? We can have Jeff work the certificates. The last couple of years, we've got honorees.

here last year, and we did Bobby Prowl one year. And both of those guys are Korean War veterans. I'm not sure there are any others. Yeah. Simpson? Well, John Simpson. Isn't he Korean too? You know, I don't know what he is. He's... MEMBERSHIP CAUGHT INTO ME. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHY, BUT IT WASN'T LIKE HE WAS QUITTING THE LEGION OR ANYTHING. HE JUST DIDN'T FEEL THAT HE NEEDED IT ANYMORE.

DO WE NEED TO NOMINATE SOMEBODY AND THEN TALK TO JEFF? NO.

it up because i think he gets to select board to sign it i think y'all signed it last year or the last couple years so yeah so i mean it's it's too last year i think we've had two the last two years yeah there were two yeah i can't remember the other previous

You didn't do Walter and Bobby Proulx at the same time. I don't think you did. Did we do them both at the same time? I think you did.

Is that the gentleman that you gave the award to that was standing there? He's been in there a long time. One of them was in uniform and Walter was in street clothes.

He fell marching. Yeah, that's what it was. That was Bobby Proulx.

Yeah, they were both honored last year.

Okay.

All right, so unless we come up with a nominee, we don't have to.

And then down here that we were going to get a list of military vehicles for the parade. I know you said that Jerry, well, we know Jerry's going to participate. Do we need to read that?

Jerry's going to, we're going to at least have a jeep, and he's going to have that little trailer that he pulled some people

Can I ride with you in the Corvette? I'm getting that Jeep now. My artificial leg don't fit. It sticks out on the side.

It's squishy in here. You're getting that Corvette? No, no.

I'll ride you in the Corvette. I know I can make the seat go back. That guy's a hot ticket, that one in that Jeep, I'll tell you. He's quite a guy.

If you could take the leg off and then you could ride him. Yeah, I know, I know.

It's a young kid, isn't it? Because if it's the young kid, he's my neighbor. I'll go talk to him. Is that who you referred to?

It's somebody that Jerry always calls. No, it's another guy.

It's a different guy. It's a different guy, okay. I think I've got his name. My neighbor has the truck and drives it in the 4th of July parade, so if you want an extra truck, I'll talk to him. Yeah, bring it on.

When it's parade time, I'm all about flag. The more flags, the better. And Jerry, I talked to him, and he said that he would see this guy again, but he'd at least have his Jeep and one other truck. And I think one year, a couple years ago, we had two other trucks plus the Jeep. And then something happened with that guy with Jerry. They had an argument or something. I don't know what it was, but he didn't show up one year. Okay. Yeah, we'll have, so yeah, we get more military vehicles. I like that. Are you still going to march from Norcross? You're not thinking about moving it down to the school line? We're not changing anything. You're not changing any of the route? Yeah.

And then, sorry, I've said two and I have some more. I'm working with Sunshine Signs to get some Memorial Day signs. They're gonna be pretty big, four by six Coro signs that we'll be able to stick around the town to advertise so we can get some more people there.

Sounds good. See, you're off and running. Thank you.

Full speed ahead, yeah. You mentioned trailers. Are we doing a trailer slash float of some sort for Memorial Day or is it just 4th of July?

No, we've never had a float for Memorial Day. Last year we did have one from the post for the 4th of July parade, but we don't have access to that trailer anymore for that for the 4th of July unless we come up with something, but I don't know of anybody that. just came out of the blue last year and then that was temporary because somebody already took that trailer away to do something else with it.

Okay, so you mentioned some of...

Andy has been for another trailer.

Yeah, I wonder if, you know, we're all able-bodied folk, the five of us. I wonder if he'd be interested in donating that to the Legion instead of having something for the Select Board. I'd like to see that.

I mean, he's donating it for the 4th of July parade, isn't he?

He said for both.

For both. Yeah, he'd offer it to us for both the Memorial Day and the 4th of July parade. That'd be great. I mean, I know Dave well, but... what what's going on sure you know if we can put more people in in a float it's less people that have to march or whatever i mean whatever makes it easier i mean i'd like to see more people show up to march i don't know how to get those from other places you pay them yeah that's what we found out the hard way with You pay them? Oh, yeah.

Everybody wants to get paid. I mean, Connecticut to send a fife and drum here for 4th of July for 45 minutes, 30, 45 minutes of walking, they wanted $1,500. Plus travel. Plus travel. Wow. Well, it is capitalism. Right? So, yeah, it's ridiculous. We were looking at, because this is the 250th, we wanted to do a drum mic show for the 4th of July. And the minimum amount was, I think, $35,000. Which, okay, well, we can work maybe some donations and stuff. Except for the 4th of July, minimum is $80,000.

So I'll put out, Jen has, we have a website, a Legion website, and she has Facebook. I don't have Facebook, but I'll have her put out on Facebook and on the Legion website. You know, we always welcome all veterans. I put it on the marquee at the Legion, all the veterans welcome. But we only seem to get just our regular guys here, you know. You know not every town's having a parade, so you think that some other close town people would show up?

I think if we can start advertising more, we take the approach like we do with the 4th of July parade, get the signs out there and stuff. That's honestly how we've grown the 4th of July parade, is just through constant advertising. And then more people want to participate. So Bob and I were talking earlier about, because I've always been trying to determine, where would you put signs to advertise a parade? And I think if we can do them around the schools, schools in have people here in town three quarters of people have kids they drive their kids there there's a lot of parent pickup exactly so if we can you know and i think i'm gonna get six signs from memorial day parade so you know a couple of schools get the signs and well i will tell you this you know we we put a ban on signs at the lagoon legion square right here but i'm more than

Perfect. Yeah. Because you get the traffic both ways. Yeah. Both ways. But, you know, as long as they're good-looking signs and stuff. Yeah. That would be a good place for them. Definitely. So have at it out there, too. Okay. Lucas.

What's up? Any input? Anything you want to add? No, I was going to say the... Schools is a good idea for the signs, maybe even like Peralta or Swirls and Scoops, like near there, you know, where you got the merger of the two roads. Yeah. They'll see the signs.

That's what you were just talking about, Carmen, right? Right.

Yeah.

Right at the Leesman Square. Yeah. Right there down the triangle. That's right in front of Swirls and Scoops.

Yeah.

I'm going to put you on speakerphone. Is that okay? Of course you can.

Okay. You should have asked who else is in the room first. Tell them who you're talking to.

All right. So we're at the first Memorial Day committee meeting here.

Yes. I was going to reach out to my friend Andy Jefferson here and let him know that my buddy, the commander, I believe you actually walked me up a year ago.

Do we have you this year again?

Yes, so I wanted to confirm with you, but yes, so you asked me literally last year when we were walking off.

I know.

So I give you kudos for the year notice, but yeah, that should work for everyone.

All right, that's awesome. Glad to hear it. And will he read?

I wanted to, I was going to reach out to him, like, Jeez, does that get relayed on? So before I reach out to Andy, so that's good to go. Awesome.

Okay. Anybody get anything for Dave?

Are you good to read maybe the proclamation or something along those lines this year?

Yeah, yeah. I can grab the proclamation from the governor and read that and give remarks. That works.

Okay.

Sure thing.

Okay, Dave. Thank you very much.

No problem, guys. Have a good one tonight.

GOOD TIMING.

HEY, JUSTIN. YEAH. ANOTHER IDEA I HAD WAS WHAT ABOUT LIKE IN SIGMUND BLOCK, YOU KNOW, THAT FORK BY POST OFFICE PUB OR ALSO, YOU KNOW, THE CUMMELIN FARMS IN SOUTH GRAFTON WOULD BE A GOOD PLACE FOR THE SIGNS FOR THE LAMORAL DAY AND 4TH OF JULY.

ISN'T THERE SOMETHING WITH THAT TRIANGLE THERE? Yeah, that's the one that has the accidents, right?

Well, they changed that whole setup down there. It's not as dangerous as it used to be down there. Okay. Well, you were just saying that, Lucas, about the Cumberland Farms and stuff like that. We used to print up the detail and the start of the parade thing. And then we can place those in the Cumberland Farms, the extra knots, or wherever we have them. also have them so they can take one.

So you're talking about the schedule that starts at 730? Right.

Okay. So they know, because we did get some complaints about, you know, sometimes we get to the seventh TIME WE GET THERE.

YOU CAN SEND ME THE SCHEDULE. I'M SORRY. YOU CAN SEND ME THE SCHEDULE. I CAN PUT SOMETHING TOGETHER.

I DON'T KNOW WHY I DON'T. THE USUAL TALENT SPOTS, TOO, SENIOR CENTER, LIBRARY, POST OFFICES. I DON'T KNOW WHY I DIDN'T THINK ABOUT IT.

WE GET THERE.

I have coffee and donuts for the color guides and the details, 6, 6.30. And then we'll blast out of there. Same as we always have.

So one year we had, I want to say a priest from one of the churches did a short reading in South Grafton. So when you talk to Walter... if he feels like he's only going to do say quincy corner in the common or whatever do we want to maybe open it up i mean i know at that that year was it was an exception for i forget the reason why it was an exception and did kind of emphasize to that priest or minister that listen

Short and sweet well, you know, so I mean again if we want to do I think one of the readings but At the cemeteries or at the appropriate spots rather again if Walters Well, I mean Sean in most cases We usually have a short prayer anyways you know at the beginning of the stuff that Walter may have may have read a prayer or two before I mean if we could get a You know, when we first get to the common or the main place where everybody is, you know, he could start it off with a prayer if they're willing to do that.

As we talk about, you know, we want to get more bodies in the room. Get the priest. He says something at Sunday Mass or whatever. And hey, listen. I want to see you all next week.

It's a pretty big deal this year, being the 250th birthday of our country, too. Okay. I think it's really a big celebration. You guys will have that 4th of July parade on that day, and then that evening we're going to have the big cookout at our post, so it's going to be an all-day thing. Okay. I still need details for that, because then I can add it to the 4th of July parade. I can send you a copy of our flyer.

Yes, please do.

It's free. It's going to be a pig roast. No charge for anybody that shows up until all the pig's gone. And then we'll put a donation pail right there or something. And so there'll be pig roast. And then, of course, I'll pay for their drinks or whatever. But then there's going to be a band. And I'm going to try to get the band to go. They usually play like... three to five or six or something like that because we usually close early there but I'm going to see if I can get them to go like from five to ten so that we run into the night time we can have some some fourth of July something in the air yeah so that'd be cool uh short sparklers

GREAT. LUCAS. ALL RIGHT. I'LL TAKE A MOTION. A MOTION TO ADJOURN THE MEETING. SECOND. MOTION TO ADJOURN. WE HAVE TO VOTE BECAUSE WE HAVE A ZOOM PERSON. ALL IN FAVOR, LUCAS. AYE. AYE. BOB, AYE. AYE. OKAY. THAT'S IT. WE'RE ADJOURNED. SORRY. A NEW GUY.