The town has been awarded a state grant to help it improve the condition of some tilted and fallen tombstones at Sandy Hook Cemetery at 7 Riverside Road.

Newtown has a total of 15 cemeteries, six of which have associations that are still active and supply burial plots. But the nine other cemeteries have no associations and are generally closed to further burials.

Christal Preszler, town deputy director of economic and community development, said this week the town has been awarded a $2,500 grant by the state Office of Policy and Management (OPM) as part of OPM’s Neglected Cemeteries Grant Program. Several years ago, the town received a similar $1,380 OPM grant to make improvements at the inactive Bradleyville Cemetery at Bradley Lane in Sandy Hook. Work there included removing plant overgrowth.

Ms Preszler said the work at Sandy Hook Cemetery will involve making vertical some of the tombstones that have tilted over or have fallen down at the graveyard. The burial ground was an active cemetery from 1813 to 1942. Some of the tombstones note the burials of people who were born in the 1700s.

Ms Preszler said the town is seeking competitive bids from several firms that are suited to make the cemetery repairs at the 2.3-acre fenced facility. The companies include masons and landscapers.

“It’s kind of a unique request we’re making of them,” said Christine O’Neill of the specialized repairs that the town is seeking for the graveyard. Ms O’Neill, who is a secretary at the town’s Land Use Agency, is assisting Ms Preszler with the cemetery repair project.

Town Historian Dan Cruson is serving as historical consultant for the project. Because Sandy Hook Cemetery has no association, the town has assumed routine maintenance at the facility, such as lawn mowing, as needed.

The bid for the tombstone improvement work will be awarded this spring, with the work to be completed by the end of summer.

Besides the inactive cemeteries at 7 Riverside Road and at Bradley Lane, other local inactive cemeteries are located at Taunton Lake Road, Cemetery Road, Hattertown Road, Botsford Hill Road, Poverty Hollow Road, and at Riverside Road in the Riverside neighborhood near Lake Zoar.