SUMNER— A law was passed by the state legislature last year stating that all veterans’ gravestones need to be maintained through specific regulations. Since then, towns in Oxford Hills have taken action to appropriate more money toward cemetery funds in order to follow the law.

The Sumner Selectboard was informed on May 27 that two cemeteries in which veterans are buried, Summerfield Cemetery and Pleasant Pond Cemetery, are not up to code.

“It’s startling,” town clerk Susan Runes said about the upkeep.

The board was uncertain whether the Summerfield Cemetery on Bonney Road, which is located on the town line between Sumner and Buckfield, is considered to be part of Sumner.

In 2013, the board went through a similar ordeal with Black Mountain Cemetery. Because the cemetery had designated funds to take care of it, the money didn’t come from taxes.

However, maintenance in Summerfield and Pleasant Pond cemeteries, Runes said, would come out of taxation or $2,000 that the board had set aside to take care of leaning stones.

The first complaint regarded two stones located in the Summerfield Cemetery that need to be straightened, she said, and suggested that the board may want to check the rest of the 17 cemeteries in town.

Runes said that the Pleasant Pond Association asked if the board would donate $1,000 to help it fix its cemetery’s stones, and for costs associated with maintenance. The Pleasant Pond Cemetery is a private cemetery, Runes added.

The town used to add $1,000 to the cemetery maintenance fund every year, but Runes said that that hasn’t happened “in a long time.” She said that the budget committee felt that the town wouldn’t be able to afford $1,000 a year.

The board agreed that it wouldn’t be able to give a $1,000 donation to a private cemetery association when it can’t afford to add the money to its own cemetery maintenance fund.

Selectwoman Mary Ann Haxton suggested that fixing stones could be done as requests are brought to the town. Fund-raising is another option for raising the money to fix the stones “unless we have a group willing to take on finding funds and doing work,” she said, adding that “it takes a certified person to do the work.”

The board “respectfully” declined the donation request made by the Pleasant Pond Cemetery Association, and said that it will contact professionals to inspect and fix the veterans’ gravestones in Summerfield Cemetery.