Landowner denies disturbing Tilton family cemetery

TILTON — Alex Obekhov, a local landowner who the selectboard alleged had disturbed an old family cemetery on his property, denied that he had done so when he met with them on Aug. 18. Visibly upset at a cease-and-desist letter he had received from the town, and the newspaper account of the matter, Obekhov said, “I cannot cease what I never did.”

He said he would work with the town to restore the Philbrick cemetery only after he received a public apology for the “slander.”

Obekhov, who purchased the property at 785 Laconia Road that included two condominium buildings, had received permission from the Tilton Zoning Board of Adjustment to replace the structures with slightly larger ones. He needed a variance because the size and shape of the property would not allow the buildings to conform with current zoning regulations.

His map showed the dimensions of the existing buildings, but the cemetery was indicated as a simple square without any measurements to indicate the distance to the houses. Obekhov said his engineer set out markers to indicate what area should not be disturbed, and that he did not encroach on those boundaries.

Selectboard members Jonathan Scanlon and Pat Consentino maintained that tombstones and grave markers had been removed from the cemetery, and that Obekhov had placed generators and a compressor for air conditioning there, as well as digging a gas line through the cemetery.

At the start of the discussion, Chair Scott Ruggles read an email into the record from Tony Belanger, who said he had personally managed the property, doing landscaping and general maintenance for past owners, until 2020, when the current owner purchased the property.

“Up until about 2009, the cemetery was in reasonably good condition for its age,” Belanger wrote. “The plot was approximately two to four feet setback from the houses. The fence surrounding the plot was made up of a white picket fence on the street side and several cement-faced black poles on the other three sides.”

According to Belanger, there were three standing headstones and four to six small footstones “and possibly one fallen headstone” at the time. He said the condition of the cemetery began to deteriorate after that, and a lightning strike felled a tree onto a neighbor’s property, knocking over one or two of the headstones. During the process of removing the tree, the neighbor, Jim Walker, “had to move the fallen headstones and one or two others to avoid damage in the tree-removal process.” Walker made some plywood covers for the headstones and leaned them against the fence.

Belanger said that, after the tree was removed, he had put one of them back in place because he knew where it belonged. The others were left standing against the fence until they could be placed back in position, with Belanger saying he could not do so because he was not certain where their exact location had been.

“I can say with confidence that the area is about the same overall condition as before Mr. Obekhov purchased the property,” Belanger concluded.

Consentino dismissed the email as irrelevant.

“We’re not looking at the history of what has taken place over the last 20 years,” she said. “We’re really focusing on the last few years of what’s taken place in the history of the cemetery.”

She said a footstone had been unearthed during construction, with debris left on the cemetery. “We had approached the owner and asked them to clean up the construction debris, and yet somehow felt that it was OK to put generators on a cemetery.”

Scanlon said he appreciated Belanger’s email because it provides additional information.

“He refers to four to six other stones that were there prior to all of this, and we didn’t see them there. Somehow, those stones are now missing,” Scanlon said.

He showed photographs of the cemetery, saying, “I think we’ve definitely established that the cemetery was infringed upon.”

Obekhov said the gas line that they said passed through the cemetery actually was the line under the building they had removed.

“It’s not in the cemetery or even close,” he said.

The old building had been a few feet from the cemetery, while the new one is seven feet away, Obekhov affirmed.

State law requires a 25-foot setback from cemeteries, but because of the odd shape of Obekhov’s lot, such a setback was not possible.

Tilton police are currently investigating the matter to determine whether any criminal charges are warranted. Town Administrator Jeanie Forrester told the selectboard that Prosecutor Jesse Renauld-Smith had warned that it would be premature for the board to make any comments until the investigation is completed.

Ruggles emphasized that the selectboard is merely interested in restoring the cemetery, and said the matter demonstrates the need for better documentation of where private gravesites exist.

“I’m a lifetime New Englander, so I know these gravesites are all over New England,” Ruggles said. “I wonder if there can be a concerted effort coming out of this situation in our municipality where towns and other municipalities, when they know of these private graveyards, and when property is turned over to a new owner, can alert the new owners and tell them the RSAs and things like that ... what the expectations are ... because I’m sure that it’s probably not something that’s common knowledge...”

Selectboard member Eric Pyra suggested that a group such as the New Hampshire Old Gravesite Association or the Lakes Region Board of Realtors might create a brochure that would explain the obligations of landowners to preserve gravesites and the laws that make desecration of graves a Class B felony. Brokers then could distribute the brochures when those pieces of property are sold.

Several members of the public commented on the situation, expressing the need to put things right.

Steven O’Leary of Tilton said the town should contact the descendants of those buried in the Philbrick cemetery to get their permission before doing anything. He cited the example of the Tilton Veterans’ Home wishing to move veterans buried in town to the state Veterans’ Cemetery in Boscawen and finding out that they could not do so without the family’s permission.

Sharon Champion, a member of the New Hampshire Cemetery Association, offered to assist the town in getting the matter resolved, “whether you go the prosecution route or whether you just worked with the owner to get the restoration process done.”

The selectboard also had received a letter from John Lord of the New Hampshire Old Graveyard Association, offering his assistance in restoring the cemetery.