MIDDLEBURGH - Crews are taking down several large, dead trees n the Middleburgh Cemetery.

The removal started on Monday, May 11 as Pridemark Tree Services of Schoharie began taking down several trees in the upper Middleburgh Cemetery. The cost to remove the trees is $10,400. A large portion of the cost will be covered by a donation of $6,500 from Coltrain Funeral Home. At the May village  board meeting, Mayor Tim Knight issued Mr. Coltrain a "hearty thank you" for the donation.

The removal of the two giant spruces will not be easy, Trustee Bob Tinker noted. They are over 100 feet tall.

If the dead trees fall, he added, there would be "a lot of damage to grave stones." In all, about six trees have to come down.

Village officials are looking to take down "a lot of trees in the cemetery" over the next few years.

"They just need to come down. They are past their prime," Trustee Tinker said. Fewer trees will open up the grounds and make it easier to mow.

Trustee Tinker, who is the village's cemetery commissioner, said not many tree removal vendors can operate in a cemetery because of the close quarters with the gravestones, trees, and uneven ground.

Planting the trees may have seemed like a good idea in the 1800s, but now they are much too large and many have died.

The village budgeted $4,000 for 2026 for tree removal in the cemetery, The village, which owns the cemetery, has $14,290.13 available in the perpetual care fund and $13,000 in the Judge Walter Bliss fund for cemetery care.