and thank you all for coming what a glorious day we have had we really worried that maybe the rain was going to come and i am so surprised we actually sent our invitations out thinking that they were more an announcements to have so many people join us today  thank you for attending and i'm myself my name is ellen o'brien chrisman on the chairman of the belmont board of cemetery commissioners and today i speak on behalf of the board my fellow commissioners charlie johnson and alexander cor today we're also joined by karen pressie who helps us form the highland meadow cemetery building committee my kids always yell at me that i only seem to be able to quote two different people my first one i'll share with you now next one later first one is from helen keller a very popular quote alone we can do so little together we can do so much and today is truly the fruition of all of that work all the many many people who have come together to make this possible we of course thank and are very blessed to have robert gardner our sent superintendent who's not able to join us today our foreman john mcdonough and our terrific crew jeff career and craig chris softy and of course our administrator the operational glue of the business nancy fe we are also grateful for the vision guidance and expertise of the house and design partnership today they're represented by peter well and it's and  from mystery associates our engineering firm today we are joined by current and past officials of the town of belmont owner of lots of funeral service providers and others who help us along our way including members of the d p w who helped especially this week to make this day possible and look as great as it does and we thank you sincerely we'll here for brief reflections today spiritual from layla atkinson the pastor of the payson park church historical from richard betts our town historian town wide perspective from angelo frenzies the chairman of the board of selectmen and finally from a cemetery perspective from me and we'll move then we'll move directly to the entrance of the cemetery to unveil the dedication plaque and officially open the gates of the highland meadow cemetery so i'm most pleased now to introduce layo atkinson who's the good morning one today we gather is such a diverse group of people some of us have been long term residents of belmont some are new to the area some of us are friends colleagues family members some of us are strangers we come from different faith traditions different philosophical perspectives and yet in all of our diversity there are two undeniable certainties that we share today we all were born and each of us will die we do not where we don't know when we don't know where but at a certain point at a certain time our last breath will pass and so it's with the certainty of this mystery that we gather together to celebrate this new civic space in belmont through the hard work of so many people as ellen's just given thanks we celebrate that this portion of god's holy earth will be set apart so that the lives of men women and even children may be cherished when they're gone from our midst we know that many tears will be shed here there will be some sighs of relief deep and meaningful words and prayers of parting spoken over and over again the gift of life and the gift of love will be recognized in all of its joy  sorrow in all of its beauty and pain and so it's in this time of consecration that the words of the cli's e s d speak to us just as they will speak to many others here in this place for everything there is a season and for every matter under heaven a time a time to be born in a time to die a time to weep in a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance and so of knowledge in this simple and yet challenging truth i now invite you to join me in prayer oh holy god god of all people in all places we gather this day to give thanks for the gift of life and the gift of love gifts that sustain and richest yet gifts that bring us great pain and grief when they come to an end it is in this moment on this land that we acknowledge the fragility of our human existence setting this place apart for the use of remembrance as part of your bless it creation we are grateful for the presence of your spirit above and below this soil asking that in the days and years to come that spirit may give comfort and hope to all those who are buried here and who grieve as we treasure this space in belmont in new ways help us as well the treasure our lives and our life together for like the clouds moving overhead even now we know that our own earthly existence will someday come to pass so help us so god to live fully to love freely striving always to nurture peace and unity on this land and where ever we travel on your blessid earth oh man town historian despite being much too young to have that title i was asked to give a very brief summary of the cemeteries in the town and where we started and where we're ending up the first cemetery in this area was the ancient land at the corner of gross street and here on avenue were purchased at the cost of six hundred dollars an acre with a half a lot set aside for a school it contained two hundred sixty five eight grade lots twenty wouldn't they began looking for a better site an article a town meeting called for moving the bodies to a new cemetery and use the present one for a gravel pit which would supply the town with good gravel but several only until eight hundred eighty five when it was voted that family lots would be twenty five dollars single lots five dollars additions to the cemetery took place in one thousand twenty three twenty four forty fifty one and sixty street and wally street purchased the land we're standing on and the land across the street becoming a gentleman found he built a highland stop on this site the foundations of the bond is still visible over and just just outside over in the woods he built the highland stock found on the site and a half mile racetrack on which to exercise his horses which was across the street in one thousand and fifty two he purchased a holstein cow from the mast of a dutch sailing vessel clone pneumonia which spread throughout his herd and they were found he destroyed by the commonwealth of massachusetts it was the first outbreak in the in the united states in one thousand nine hundred three a campaign to co meetings resulted in the accounting of land for the new square a new cemetery to be called highland meadows we owe them all a vote of thanks and i'm glad that the highland name is brought included into him with this property because of the highland stock found that was ever so many is thank you very much and help you all have a nice day chairman of the board of selectmen feel free to come on  you thank you the bank thank you all for being here can you hear me it's truly one of the great benefits of being the chairman of the board of selectmen to be able to participate in a significant town of it like this one and as always listening to you i learned a little bit more about belmont history and it's such a great pleasure to hear him speak so often today in this dedication of the new highland metro cemetery belmont has achieved another great milestone after nearly twenty years the wish of so many and when i was running for selectman it's unbelievable how many people would ask about it to to be able to choose belmont as their final resting resting place can finally be realized  belmont but it's only i did live someplace else for ten years when i was younger but it was really important to me and my family to be able to have a spot like this would be able to come and know you know where where where where we're going to end up building committee as i stand here i see a number of people a former selectman bill monahan new kelly it was so instrumental initially in the mclean task force to try and figure out how we were going to be able to make use of this land bill will brownsburg or former selectman as well and some of the other people that were involved in it from the town side i get to come in the treasurer is well  together to get a project like this under way and i got to admit you know every so often i drive up procket avenue i come in i make that turn and go back out again and i say that's nice i'm just so delighted as with so many other  for toward you know so many people also the mclean land use group trying to integrate how this parcel of land is going to it's going to work with the with the rest  of the land the rest of the town conservation land that's that's around us the trail system that just recently got built and approved or being approved is something that's going to be available to you know all of belmont residents for many many years to come and for visitors to belmont so when you put it all together it's a very very very very successful project and i wish to thank everyone that participated and i think they all the say about big round of applause thank you very much so finally to me i said to my daughter who is who is fourteen years old you know after thirteen years of working on this here we are what do i say we're thing really seems like it has been said doesn't it and she said to me one moment really took thirteen years to get there so really keep it short and and i think she's right so although many people have cited and continue to cite the one nine hundred eighty eight closing of belmont cemetery in terms of the availability of  lots and the two thousand and five acquisition in terms of the turnover of the deed from mclean to the town of belmont as major milestones we the cemetery commission and now karen pressley our companion in all of this site some other milestones as well we'd like to bring people's attention i have the original copy of the one nine hundred sixty six belmont erald newspaper i'll give it to you deck after i'm done and it cites howard sharp insights the need for cemetery land the town had tried in one thousand nine hundred sixty six to create another cemetery actually across the street over what is now rock meadow and it was voted down he wrote a very scathing letter to the people of the town of belmont and said you cannot do this in a piecemeal fashion it is not going to get you very far and who knew how correct he would be he actually died later that year and was not buried in belmont cemetery so in immediately up to mclean and have teeth with the administrators at mclean thinking that he could just schmooze them a little and get some land and he's really good at that and that's something that i learned and certainly followed on is you can see that's right  then he was charlie was joined by sandy corbett alex's dad and tom feely and all of his efforts and that lasted for about twenty years many times several attempts were made often thwarted by either money or differences over land  and then in one nine hundred eighty nine my own dad died and i know a lot of people know the story by the one nine hundred eighty nine my family thought that they these guys were successful because we knew that it was a priority for the town and there are a lot of selectmen along the way had said this is a priority and we had been supported in that but sadly that didn't happen for my family and we wound up having to have my dad interred at modern cemetery one thousand nine hundred four comes around and i have a little girl in the backpack and my husband said you know instead complaining about not having a cemetery when you figure out how to make it happen so i threw mckenzie in my backpack and off we went for campaigning for cemetery commission and surprise no one more surprised than me i got elected and i think that the reason is we sort of touched a nerve there are a lot of people out there that had never been truly heard on mass before so the cemetery commission sandy charlie and i embarked on with bob on a public education campaign to let people know what was going on in town and that they really needed to start to speak up in fact every time i would reach into the freezer case to get ice cream at shaw's or star market someone would come along and relate my father's story back to me it's important for people that they're memorialized in their hometown and especially in a town like belmont where there are multiple generations coming back and constantly wanting to return and raise their own families here i would get monthly anonymous calls and i know some of the board of selectmen used to get them as well particularly i'd like to tell you about two one in particular was a mother of a special needs son an adult special needs son she feared that she and her husband would die first and then her his son would be left with that burden and not know exactly what to do he only knew belmont she would call me monthly she never revealed her name for the first three years that she called me so that's about thirty six calls the second gentleman i'm happy to say actually has purchased a lot here in belmont at highland meadow and he in the age of eighty became an activist after being very quiet for all of his eighty years he could not sit back and he was one who called the selectmen on a regular basis i see lots of nods he was a second or third generation belmonte and it was very important to him many people who contributed to the commune in the fabric of belmont had been turned away over those twenty years and with great sadness and it really hit very hard a lot of people this complex as has been described was incredibly complex and very difficult and i now offer the other quote which i wear on my arm and it is from the famous apollo thirteen mission it says failure is not an option it is my cemetery montra and my fellow cemetery folks have heard this each time even when things look bleak we looked down and said sam it due to failure is not an option we looked at all the parcels of property in this town including incinerators playgrounds house parcels you name it we did it it always came back to one place to mclean hospital in the late ninety's sadly sandy corbett died but luckily his son alex decided that he would continue on with sandy's vision and really try to make that dream come true for a new cemetery and he brought a great deal of vigor to the cemetery commission and we're very thankful for that the task force met and in one thousand nine hundred six was created we were first time that the center's actually had a seat at the table and it was so exciting they really endorsed everything we had to say and ask for and mclean did as well and that meant a lot idea was pretty radical though we had flat markers in mind we felt we should be compatible with the surrounding conservation land which you look at now an entire landscape would be dedicated really to them  remembering instead of individual more ornate monuments were upright we were working with conservation interests and they worked with us and they really negotiated hard and we appreciate all their efforts then finally we'd really let people pick their own l from an entire cemetery who heard of that ever here's the lot knock yourself out pick where ever you want wander the land we'd be happy to have that happen two thousand comes around and we are again blessed however some design partnership took pity on us gave us a great bid an absolutely renowned firm from boston and they really saw everything that we were trying to do and they turned this land back to its organ original architectural house history and orchard a meadow and a woodland surrounded by beautiful stone walls very very much the cabul area of the new england area farm gates really just the architecture of the property speaks to you and even now this property though it has been mentioned it has won an award with the boston society of landscape architects for its ingenuity and wonder how over some continues pro bono after their contract expired they continue because they care so much about this property and to the benefit of the town as well so you've heard about the votes the lawsuits all that even the wall street journal could not believe when they made a report that there was opposition to a cemetery back in the ninety's but we all know that to be true we survived it all and we all work together stronger june two thousand and five again another him milestone was achieved and the deed was transferred over never more jubilant for that but we still had a long way to go march of two thousand and six i did not bring that newspaper lots went on sale and you all showed up there was at seven o'clock in the morning there was a line people were drinking coffee they were sharing their stories feeling a bit of sadness trying to figure out why this was so important to them they were showing talking about picnicking spots and sunset spots it's so fitting at that point there is great emotion was so fitting that this area has always been known as the heart shaped meadow and only then did it really become visceral to us we understood how important this was people came out in droves and in fact to date we've sold one point five million dollars worth of lots to the people of the town of belmont with a development cost of about a million and our treasurer looking at me every day saying how we common we're looking great in our perpetual care fund is obviously one of our goals we really want to state that so this property will long be taken care of the way it's meant to but we have been operating the cemetery quietly although we are having our dedication today july because we did have many families who had purchased lots and were unable to bury their loved ones here while we waited for our property to become our own again and we sincerely appreciate those people and their patience so i'm wrapping up today we dedicate and we did we fill our goal our original goal and i went back into one of the original one thousand nine hundred six pieces of paper and it says we want to create a place that encourages the living to celebrate and commemorate the dead in a park like atmosphere of trails and passive recreation opportunities we feel it's really spot on and we need to achieve that end especially with all of the access to the trails in this beautiful open spaces which is adjacent and now cared for by the land management committee but more importantly we realized we have realized that what we wanted to achieve is now a reality one that we had not necessarily stated it is an entire landscape dedicated to remembering it is a place where mourning loved one morning loved one can come to grieve and experience just a small spark of solace where the restful nature of this land can display a spectacular sunset and a ray of continuing hope for those who look for it we feel that highland meadow has already achieved this end and we look forward to its continued presence as a place of rest and remembrance in the hearts of belmont think i thank everyone who contributed today i think it was really a very uplifting i'm hoping a very uplifting experience and now we will do the fun part which is we unveil the plaque and we will officially open the gates to belmont belmont's new memorial cemetery otherwise known as highland me