The other day I was going thru my daily articles of the industry when I came across two articles, that while not unique to what I read, caused me to pause to think — “How will we solve these problems?”  Because, I don’t think that these problems are going to go away with out some thoughtful dialog on how to solve them.

The first article dealt with an abandoned cemetery in Sterling, Colorado.  In this instance, you can read the article here, the cemetery was neglected basically because the previous owner had absconded with the trust funds intended to pay for maintenance and fulfill prepaid burial contracts.  In this particular instance, that owner has now passed away.

So, the cemetery has been neglected and there is no money to pay for the upkeep.  Volunteers have conducted clean up days and mowed the grass at the site.  The article was about the upcoming Sterling City council meeting where they hope that the county will agree to take ownership of the cemetery and the city will handle burial operations.

While this case is fairly unique in that the owner is accused of stealing the funds to operate the cemetery, there are a lot of rural cemeteries in my area that have little or no perpetual care funds and there is just no people left in the area to operate and maintain those cemeteries.  It is my opinion that this is a growing problem in rural America and, my guess is that, cities and counties will have to bear the cost of upkeep in the future.

The second article I saw was about the payments for indigent funerals in West Virginia.  We have talked about this before.  In West Virginia the legislature has appropriated $2.2 million to be paid towards indigent funerals in $1,250 increments per funeral.  The state runs on a July thru June fiscal year but will run out of burial funds this year in February.  It is the 6th straight year of running out of funds before the fiscal year ended.

According to Fred Kitchen, a Barboursville funeral director, “There’s no interest at all in providing more money for the fund from the legislature.”

House Bill 4024 would reduce the amount of funds paid by the state to $1,000 per funeral and would also make cremation the preferred method of interment unless there is a religious objection.  The bill is supported by the Funeral Director’s Association of West Virginia.  Their rationale is that they are already losing money, but with the cremation directive, they will lose less despite a lower reimbursement.  You can read more about this issue here.

Funeral Director Daily take:  These are just two issues that I don’t see going away anytime soon.  West Virginia may be the tip of the iceberg on the issue with indigent funeral costs.  I know that there are also Canadian provinces dealing with this same type of issue.  However, we have some who believe that they are entitled to funeral costs while, on the other hand, we have government that has to watch the taxpayer’s money.  These two issues will collide at some point and it probably will be the funeral industry that gets hurt unless we have some solutions.  Somebody does have to take care of the disposition of those bodies that cannot pay. . . and funeral directors margins are getting thinner already. . . they may not be in a position to do so.  If that is the case, then what?

With the cemetery issue I just don’t see any way around government taking over some of these cemeteries that are in the middle of nowhere and have no resources to even mow the grass.

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