LIVERMORE FALLS — Town Manager Kristal Flagg and Public Works foreman Director Bill Nichols will check out a fence at a cemetery on the Haines Corner Road to see what can be done about it to prevent livestock from getting in it and rooting up areas.

Pigs, goats, cattle, rabbits and ducks have been getting into the graveyard.

The cemetery is in the East Livermore area and does not belong to the town, Flagg told selectmen Tuesday. There are veterans’ graves there and the town is required by law to maintain them.

“The fence needs work. Animals are getting in and ruining the cemetery,” she said.

She and Nichols will look at the fence to find a way to keep pigs and goats from a neighboring property out of the graveyard.

The fence at the back of the cemetery is wooden and behind it is a property that has animals.

There used to be a metal fence, but Flagg said she doesn’t know what happened to it.

The town’s animal control officer, Flagg, police and the state animal welfare division are all involved in trying to get the issue resolved, she said.

Resident Richard Korhonen said there are more animals than pigs and goats including cattle, rabbits and ducks that are going into the cemetery.

“Right now the concern is the fence,” Flagg said. “It is our responsibility.”

Asked if they could take the animal owner to court, she said, they could but they can’t wait for the legalities to be resolved to pay for the fence.

“We need to figure out what can be done,” she said.

On Wednesday morning, there was some sod that had been torn up and damage near gravestones. There were no animals in the cemetery.

The owner of the animals, Ricky Tompkins, was issued four summonses Monday on the civil violation of animal trespass, police Chief Ernest Steward Jr. said Wednesday. The summonses pertained to his animals going on neighboring property and in the cemetery.

Both police and a state agency have previously warned Tompkins, who owns property that goes behind the cemetery, to keep his animals on his own property, Steward said.

It is against the law to shoot a trespassing animal unless the animal is threatening an individual or their animals, he said.

A call to Tompkins was not immediately returned Wednesday.

dperry@sunjournal.com