Arizona city to sell cemetery

This is an interesting news story because it seems so many times we have published stories about cemeteries asking to be taken over by cities or other municipal agencies because they could no longer make a profit.  We noticed this story, that you can read here, about the City of Glendale, Arizona, planning to sell their city owned cemetery to a private company.

The cemetery in question is the Glendale City Cemetery and it was established by three churches over 100 years ago before Glendale even became a city.  According to the article, the 21 acre cemetery was taken over by the city in 1962.

Turns out that after continual annual losses of about $50,000 in operations the city hired a consultant to see what could be done.  One of the options presented by the consultant was that of “privatizing the cemetery to an established industry professional entity with the necessary expertise and connection to maintain the cemetery as viable.”  That is what the city decided to do and and the consultant was asked to locate qualified buyers with offers.

Turns out that an offer from a company that owns funeral homes and cemeteries came to fruition and the City of Glendale received an offer of $100,000 for the purchase – which will include a regulated perpetual care fund of about $3.8 million.  Reading a report by the city – that you can read here –  indicates that there is more in the perpetual care account because it appears in addition to getting $100,000 from the buyer the city will also retain $2.0 million from the fund as “excess of the needs of the cemetery and can be used elsewhere to support the general operations of the city.”

In any regard, this looks like it could be a good outcome for all concerned if the city accepts the offer.  The new entity has agreed to continue to operate the cemetery with some benefits for Glendale residents so the city will benefit from that and the new buyer will receive an opportunity to create a going concern for themselves with the help of some funds from a perpetual care fund.

An interesting twist on a city cemetery ownership change and a chance for a business to prosper.  That is what makes America, America!!

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