Madison Village corrects error in fee schedule for new columbarium
Sep. 2—Madison Village Council has approved an amendment to an ordinance that recently established fees for a new columbarium in Fairview Cemetery.
The revision was made to correct a section of the legislation that addressed engraving costs for the fronts of niches.
Village Administrator Dwayne Bailey provided council with an explanation before the panel voted on the measure during its Aug. 28 meeting.
"When we originally quoted the fees for the columbarium, we thought that the engraving for the doorway was included in the full price, but it wasn't," Bailey said. "This (amendment) removes that."
The original ordinance, approved on June 26, established fees for the columbarium at $1,000 per niche for village residents and $1,200 for residents from outside the community.
Those prices initially were accompanied by the phrase "including graving." The amended measure simply changes that wording to "not including engraving."
Bailey said the village will still have a policy mandating the specific style of type that can be used for the engravings.
"But it will be on (the buyer of the niche) to obtain their own engravings," he said. "It's not included in that price."
A freestanding columbarium with 24 niches to hold cremation urns was installed at the cemetery on June 13. Fairview Cemetery is located on River Street, just a few minutes north of the Interstate 90 and Route 528 interchange.
Bailey said discussions about putting a columbarium in the cemetery began "years ago."
"It just got to the point where we could financially do it," he said, noting that the village included funding for one in its 2023 budget.
Jim Belding Monuments of Madison Township designed and installed it.
This structure, which cost $12,360, is 59 inches tall by 79 inches wide. The side walls measure 17 inches from front to back.
The columbarium consists of four rows, each containing six niches for urns.
Madison Village located it in the northeast portion of Fairview Cemetery. The structure is situated in a place where more sections could be added to either side, once it is filled to capacity.
the village's decision to place a columbarium at its cemetery comes during a time when the popularity of cremation has been increasing in the United States.
The annual number of cremations in the United States is expected to rise from 1.91 million, or 59.3 percent of all deaths in 2022, to 2.94 million, or 78 percent of all deaths in 2040. Those statistics come from the 2022 National Funeral Directors Association's Cremation and Burial Report.
In 2015, cremation rate surpassed the casketed-burial rate for the first time in U.S. history, the report noted.
"Many factors contribute to the steadily rising selection of cremation by U.S. consumers, including cost considerations; environmental concerns; an increasingly transient population; fewer religious prohibitions against the practice; and changing consumer preferences, such as the desire for simpler, less ritualized funeral ceremonies," the report stated.
During the first 2 1/2 months that the village's columbarium has been standing, no urns filled with cremated remains have been placed inside any of the niches, Bailey said, on Sept. 1. Also, nobody has paid yet to reserve a niche for the future, he added.
