ROXBURY — Hallowed ground in town was damaged recently by a couple of varmints that have since been removed.

Now the town must hire someone to repair the damage done by a skunk and groundhog to the Spaulding plot in Pine View Cemetery off Route 17.

“A skunk and a groundhog were living in the cemetery,” Town Clerk Doreen Stinson said Wednesday afternoon.

“And they were making quite the holes up there,” Renee Hodsdon, treasurer and tax collector, said.

“Crazy,” Selectman Tim Derouche said early Wednesday evening. “I guess the skunk was digging for grubs or bugs in the plot.”

A man walking his dog last week discovered the damage and spotted the groundhog but not the skunk, Derouche said. The man alerted town officials, who contacted the animal control officer.

Area trapper Steve Hatch live-trapped the animals and removed them from the area, Hodsdon said. She said they were waiting for Hatch to put mothballs in both tunnels to discourage further infestation.

The incident and damage came to light at Tuesday night’s selectmen meeting. The board authorized Stinson and Hodsdon to hire someone to fill in tunnels dug by the animals. Three flat stone markers were affected.

In other business, selectmen received a delivery of American and prisoner-of-war flags and are waiting for a Maine flag to be delivered by Rep. Matt Peterson, D-Rumford.

To solve a problem with a Rangeley contractor’s bid being higher than anticipated, selectmen decided to reduce the number of weeks to have portable toilets at the town beach and boat launch on Roxbury Pond.

At the board’s meeting April 28, Brackett’s Pumping & Portable Toilet Service of Rangeley submitted the only bid for portable toilets at $90 a week.

Derouche asked Hodsdon to calculate that cost applied for two portable toilets for 18 weeks from May 15 through Sept. 18 at the public beach and for one portable toilet for 24 weeks from May 15 through Oct. 28 at the town boat launch.

Hodsdon said it would be $5,400.

Brackett’s also provided portable toilets last year.

The board also agreed to hire Wesley Cox to mow lawns at town cemeteries and the Town Office and to do maintenance and cleanup work at the beach and boat launch, Stinson said.

Selectmen also decided to end this season’s posting of town roads.

The board also unanimously voted to spend $3,125 from the summer roads account to buy Rhino Seal and seal cracks in Horseshoe Valley Road.

tkarkos@sunmediagroup.net