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The Town Must Keep the Grave — and Flag It Every Memorial Day

A municipality, cemetery corporation or cemetery association owning a public burying ground shall keep the grave, headstone, monument or marker of any veteran in good condition and repair from 1 May to 30 September. Separately, each municipality shall decorate veterans' graves with an American flag and appropriate flag holders on the day Memorial Day is observed. Neglect after 14 days' notice carries a penalty of up to $100.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

A municipality, cemetery corporation or cemetery association owning a public burying ground shall keep the grave, headstone, monument or marker of any veteran in good condition and repair from 1 May to 30 September. Separately, each municipality shall decorate veterans' graves with an American flag and appropriate flag holders on the day Memorial Day is observed. Neglect after 14 days' notice carries a penalty of up to $100.

What it's worth: Grave, headstone and marker kept in good condition 1 May to 30 September, and a flag and holder each Memorial Day

  • No dollar figure is claimed. What the sections buy is the labour of keeping a grave and a marker, done by the municipality rather than by the family, plus the flag.
  • The weight reflects a season of grounds care and a flag holder, not a burial cost. The state cemetery system is a separate record.

Who is entitled to it

  • The duty is owed to the grave itself, so anyone in the family may call it in.
  • You are in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

  1. 1Know which of the two duties you are invoking. §1101(2) is grounds and marker CONDITION between 1 May and 30 September; 30-A §2901(1) is the flag and holder on the day Memorial Day is observed. They are separate sections with separate wording.
  2. 2Both are drafted as "shall". The money behind them is not: 30-A §5723(3) merely permits a municipality to raise or appropriate money to care for veterans’ graves and maintain the fences. A town that says it has no line in the budget has still not answered the duty.
  3. 3Put the neglect in writing to a municipal officer and keep the date. §1101-C turns on at least one municipal officer having had 14 days’ actual notice or knowledge of the neglected condition; after that a penalty of not more than $100 may be assessed on the municipality.
  4. 4Ask whether the town has adopted its own standards. If it has not, the statutory fallback applies: grass suitably cut and trimmed, a flat grave marker kept free of grass and debris, and the burial place free of fallen trees, branches, vines and weeds.
  5. 5An ancient burying ground — one established before 1880 with restricted burial — is inside §1101(1), and the duty there is on the municipality in collaboration with veterans’ organisations, cemetery associations, descendants and other interested persons, to the best of its ability given location and accessibility.
  6. 6Private land is not a shield. Under §1101-B the owner of an ancient burying ground shall provide access, and an unreasonable denial can leave the owner responsible for the fines, court costs and attorney’s fees a municipality incurs in obtaining it. An owner who instead denies access assumes the duty personally.
  7. 7If the burying ground is in an unorganized township, §1101-D puts the county in the municipality’s place for §§1101, 1101-B and 1101-C, and 30-A §2901(5) does the same for the flag.
  8. 8Check the one exclusion before you spend effort: §1101-E and 30-A §2901(6) both take veterans’ graves on a site owned by the Federal Government as of 1 January 2000 outside these requirements.
Form
A written request to the municipal officers naming the burying ground and the grave
File with
The municipal officers of the town where the burying ground lies; the county for an unorganized township
No renewal
Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionThis is routinely described as something towns do out of goodwill. It is a statutory duty drafted in mandatory terms, it reaches every public burying ground in the state rather than only the state cemetery system, and it carries a penalty. A family told that grave care is the family’s own business has been told wrong.
CorrectionThe duty and the money are in different statutes and use different verbs. 13 M.R.S. §1101 says the municipality SHALL keep the grave in good condition; 30-A M.R.S. §5723(3) says it MAY appropriate money for the work. The permissive funding section does not cut down the mandatory maintenance section.
Worth knowingThe maintenance season is bounded: 1 May to 30 September. A grave photographed in April or October is outside the window the section sets, which is worth knowing before making a complaint.
Worth knowingWhere a municipality has adopted its own standards of good condition and repair, those standards govern instead of the statutory list, and the section requires them to detail at a minimum how to maintain the grave, the grass and the headstones. Ask the town clerk whether any were adopted.
Known gapHow the $100 penalty is actually pursued — who brings the action and in what court — is not stated in §1101-C and was not established this session. Nor was any Maine municipality’s adopted standard read, so the practical bar varies town by town.

Sources

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.