SALEM — A historic cemetery, on the brink of bankruptcy, is getting a hand from the town of Salem.

Salem Mounds Cemetery, dedicated a decade before Wisconsin became a state, is running out of cash. The committee of volunteers that operates the cemetery on the southeast corner of Highway 50 and Highway B say they will no longer have enough money to maintain the property next year.

Under Wisconsin law, bankrupt cemeteries become the responsibility of the local governing body. With the trustees of Salem Mounds saying insolvency is around the corner, the Salem Town Board decided Monday it would provide the cemetery with an infusion of cash, perhaps $5,000 to $10,000, rather than take over operations.

The cemetery has a long history in the community and is the burial place of many early settlers. Although located in the town of Salem, it is close to Silver Lake, and many longtime families of that community are represented among the gravestones.

“I have the original paperwork here somewhere, written in quill pen,” said June Brandes. “Here it is: Sept. 18, 1838.”

On that day, Brandes said, a committee of Salem residents gathered at a school and decided to create a place to bury the dead. They organized a society with nine trustees to manage the affairs of the place, and put aside about five acres of land.

“It’s been run by community volunteers basically ever since,” Brandes said.

Finding volunteers to run a cemetery is not easy.

Wendell Schenning, a local insurance agency owner, said his late mother, a longtime trustee, asked him to serve on the board for just one year. That was some 30 years ago. He acts as the sexton, organizing cemetery upkeep and burials.

Brandes, who works in Schenning’s insurance office, was “drafted” in the 1980s. She has been keeping the records and books ever since.

About six to seven people are still buried in Salem Mounds each year, and there are still burial plots for sale. The cemetery is a not-for-profit, not a business, and it was organized with the idea that local residents would pitch in to maintain the property.

“Years ago it didn’t cost as much to run it,” Brandes said. “The community got together and mowed the lawn. Nowadays people don’t have the time to do that, and we have to pay to have it done. The costs to just keep it looking decent are a lot more expensive than they were years ago.”

The town already plows snow from the site.

Schenning said the trustees of the cemetery first talked to the Town Board about their increasingly poor financial outlook three to four years ago, putting them on notice that the town would likely have to take over in the future.

“Now it looks like in 2010 we’ll run out of money,” he said.

Schenning and Brandes had hoped the town would take over operations of Salem Mounds completely. They said Twin Lakes operates a cemetery that became insolvent there, setting up a committee that oversees the property.

However, at Monday’s Town Board meeting, Administrator Patrick Casey advised the board to contribute cash for the cemetery’s upkeep rather than taking it over. The board voted to provide money to the cemetery upkeep, the amount to be determined later, effective Jan. 1, 2010. In exchange, the board will ask the trustees of the cemetery to report on their financial status during the year.

Brandes said she is not sure the board’s funding idea is workable, saying state law is likely to ultimately push the turnover of the cemetery to the town.

Ultimately, she said, the trustees’ concern is that the cemetery is property maintained.

“We wanted it to be a graceful takeover,” she said.