Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Cremation trend affects local cemeteries
The sagging economy is apparently not only affecting the cost of living in Fairfax County, but also the cost of dying.
The death care industry is feeling the crunch as money for funeral and cemetery services tightens and more and more people shop for bargains, often choosing the less expensive option of cremation for their loved ones.
Andrea Schwarz of Herndon's Chestnut Grove cemetery told the Herndon Town Council last week that, largely due to a national trend toward cremation, the cemetery's revenues are down nearly 20 percent since last year.
Chestnut Grove is one of the few municipally owned and operated active cemeteries in the region.
According to Schwarz, the community-oriented cemetery has experienced a 29-percent reduction in interment services for the first six months of fiscal 2008 and a 7-percent reduction in site sales over the previous fiscal year.
According to Chris Adams, owner of Adams-Green Funeral Home in Herndon, a burial service can easily cost up to $10,000, while cremation services at his facility begin at $3,300. “It is still about a third of the cost,” he said.
Adams installed an on-site crematory at the funeral home in 2003 due to “an increase in demand” and people becoming skeptical of third-party crematoriums after high-profile reports of fraud at a facility in Georgia.
Adams estimates that about half of his customers who opt for cremation still bury the ashes in a cemetery, but not necessarily a local one. “They may have ties to another community,” he said.
Pete Treibley, owner of Vienna's Money & King Funeral Home, also owns his own crematorium, which he purchased in 2005.
“I'd say that the demand for cremation has grown by at least 10 percent in the last three years,” he said.
Nationally, it is predicted that by the year 2010, nearly 40 percent of all deaths in the United States will undergo the cremation process, according to the Cremation Association of North America. The number rises to 60 percent by the year 2025. One potential downside to this is that future historians and archaeologists may have a more difficult time piecing together cultural histories.
Several factors besides cost may also be responsible for the upward trend. Many major Christian religions, including the Catholic Church, are now more accepting of the procedure, according to both Adams and Treibley. Several churches, and even some universities, now provide their own space for the interment of ashes.
Another factor affecting local cemeteries is the private selling of plots by individuals.
Adams said that people often approach him, offering to sell their plots in Chestnut Grove Cemetery. He bought two himself. “My wife and I have ours,” he said. “Right next to Mr. Green, the previous owner of the funeral home. We bought them from a family that was moving out of town.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.