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Lexington Ad Hoc Crematory Study Meeting February 6, 2019 George Burnell DEMAND: I identified 20 Funeral Homes in our primary service area and 13 in the secondary area. There are some others, particularly in Lowell, but I believe we have talked to most. In no case was there an unmet need and all had warm relations with their provider. Although there is a potential market, I forsee a long, grueling effort to establish and build an acceptable volume. It is a demanding task with absolute security; faultless performance; minimum 10/6 service, 14/7 preferred, led by an experienced professional who remains in place for years with fully trained/qualified assistants. Market Sectors: The impetus for this study has its' roots in "witnessing" cremations. Our data indicates there were 4 such requests in Lexington in 2018 and run between 5% and 8% of cremations — for the Hindu & Sikh religions. That service is now provided to Lexington residents at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, just 11 miles away and does not, on its own, justify a crematory. However, we are undergoing a significant transition in all religions as cremation grows in popularity, presently running at 50% of deaths, ramping up to 80% by 2035. The increase is in overall cremations but will not impact the witness amount. Todays' oldest generation favors funeral home visiting hours with a church service or funeral home memorial service; either burial or cremation. The Baby -Boomers tend to be more secular and more inclined towards cremation. The younger generations are progressively more inclined to cremation with varied attitudes on the disposition of the ashes to the extent there may be no service at all, not even taking the ashes. A current practice is to meet at a restaurant to exchange memories over lunch, each guest receiving a baggy with ashes to spread as they choose. By law, when you die, at home, at the hospital, at the nursing home, it is a Funeral Director that picks up the body which is held for 48 hours for the Medical Examiner before it is cremated. This puts the Funeral Director squarely in the process and is the prime person to determine where the cremation will take place. We have interviewed 20 Funeral Homes in the primary area surrounding Lexington and 13 in the secondary area to the northwest. The primary crematories selected are: Mt Auburn, Cambridge; Newton Crematory; St. Michaels, Boston; Linwood, Peabody and Merrimack, New Hampshire. Distance does not seem to be much of a factor; once you are in the vehicle an extra few miles is not an issue. For longer distances, such as Duxbury, bodies are assembled at a terminal in Boston for combined shipment. But service is a prime factor; i.e. turn around time to drop off the body 12/7. The security of the body is foremost — what comes back must be from the right body. And the business is both price sensitive and quite competitive. Furthermore, the funeral homes represent 3 or 4 generations of close working relationships. Those don't change until someone screws up big time. This will not be easy. In all cases it is the family that decides what services they will use but the Funeral Homes have an incentive to steer them to their own facility for viewing and memorial services. Never -the -less, there is a consistent recommendation from the Funeral Directors for us to have a hall to accommodate 100 plus clients. Just a witnessing area puts the facility in the low cost race to the bottom arena. Page 3 of 4