In each city and town there shall be appointed annually, by the chief executive authority of the city or town, a committee of three citizens of the city or town, who are veterans and whose duty it shall be to see that the grave of any person who served in time of war in the military or naval forces of the English colonies in America, prior to 1776, or of the state of Connecticut or in the armed forces of the United States, shall be suitably kept and cared for. If the cost of such care and maintenance is not paid by private persons or by the trustees of the cemetery where any such grave is situated, it shall be paid by the city or town; and cities and towns are authorized to appropriate money for such purpose. Money so appropriated may be expended directly by the city or town or may be paid to the trustees or manager of the cemetery in which any such grave is located; but the sum paid in any year shall not exceed for any such grave the sum usually charged for the annual care and maintenance of a grave in the same cemetery or, if no such charge is made in that cemetery, it shall not exceed the sum charged in other cemeteries in the same city or town for such service, provided, when any such grave has settled appreciably, such sum may be exceeded.