The Observer Newspapers | Cemetery Projects Revenue Drop

July 4, 2008

Cemetery Projects Revenue Drop

By Rebecca Plevin
Observer Staff Writer

More people are choosing cremation instead of traditional burials and this trend is affecting Chestnut Grove Cemetery's bottom line, town staff said Tuesday night. Revenue at the town cemetery is expected to be about $149,000 less than projected, due mainly to a decline in plot sales and burials, and staff members have proposed increasing prices to make up for some of the difference.

The cemetery has experienced a significant decrease in in-ground burials over the past two years, according to the staff report presented to the Town Council. Interments are down about 26 percent from projected numbers for 2007-2008, and interment rights, which are the purchase of burial plots, are showing an about 17 percent decline. Out of 102 people who were buried at Chestnut Grove this year, 24 were cremated. This was an increase of about 7 percent from the previous year.

The situation at Chestnut Grove is part of a national trend toward cremation, according to Chris Adams, owner and funeral director of Adams-Green Funeral Home in Herndon. Adams said cremation has become a more popular option in the past 10 to 15 years. He said cremation is now a more accepted alternative to a traditional burial and it has become popular as people feel less ties to a specific community. Cremation is also less expensive than a traditional burial, he said.

Adams-Green responded to the cremation trend by installing a crematory on the funeral home premises about four years ago, Adams said. Now, he said, families are more comfortable when the funeral home staff picks up a deceased relative, because "they don't leave our care for the whole process, through the end." Adams said cremations now make up about 50 percent to 60 percent of the funeral home's business, but only about one-third of those cremated bodies are laid to rest in the cemetery.

Herndon Florist owner Anne Harvey said the trend toward cremations has affected the types of flower arrangements she sells. Now, Harvey said, she rarely sells the larger, plastic, disposable sympathy baskets that were traditionally laid out on gravesites. Rather flowers arranged in glass vases and wicker baskets that families can take home and keep have become more popular, she said.

Chestnut Grove Cemetery is also trying to adapt to the changes in the death care industry. Cindy Roeder, director of parks and recreation, said Wednesday that to stay current with funeral trends, town staff would need to look "differently at how we use the ground and how we accommodate the needs of the community to meet their burial needs." She said families would always need a place to memorialize a deceased relative and it "just is going to be in a different shape than what we've typically seen."

The cemetery's proposed price increases would position its rates just below average when compared with other cemeteries in the region, cemetery office assistant Andrea Schwarz said Tuesday at the council meeting. This increase would both boost revenues and preserve Chestnut Grove for families who are committed to maintaining the facility as a thriving and surviving cemetery, Roeder said.

Town staff is also considering ways to more effectively market Chestnut Grove as an active and historical cemetery, Roeder said. She said town staff could place more information on the town's Web site and could advertise in publications like the Arlington Catholic Herald and at senior living centers.

Another way to increase revenues at the cemetery is to encourage people to buy plots before they are necessary, said Chestnut Grove manager Mike Moore. At the end of his presentation on Tuesday, he offered to meet with any of the council members to discuss burial plot prices and options.