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Lexington Ad Hoc Crematory Study Meeting <br />February 6, 2019 <br />Mt Auburn is universally recognized as the finest Crematory/Cemetery. Newton is highly regarded. <br />The most referenced facility for service is Merrimack. The most referenced as an example for us is <br />Linwood in Peabody. In addition to a Hall/chapel, we will be expected to have a Meditation Garden, <br />parking lot, and double roadway. <br />Some examples of pricing: <br />Cremation only: Mt Auburn $410, St Michaels $275 (includes return of ashes), Duxbury $ <br />Alternate Services: <br />Boston Cremation (St, Michaels Cemetery) <br />Simple Cremation ($1,495) Transportation, permits, cremation, Med Examiner fee <br />Cremation with Memorial Service ($2,270) <br />Open casket funeral with cremation ($3,995) <br />Massachusetts Legacy Cremation Services ($695): Transportation, permits, cremation <br />Major Risk: will other cemeteries open crematories (easy to do — 40% of funeral homes nationwide <br />have/will have a crematory)? Furthermore, there is active lobbying to allow Massachusetts Funeral <br />Homes to have retorts as they do in New Hampshire and most other states. <br />My discussions with Funeral Directors fell into only two camps: either they had deep relationships <br />with their crematory and could not envision changing or they had a modest interest and could see a <br />partial relationship developing over time provided our effort was spotless. Tellingly, whenever I left <br />a callback message indicating it was about building a crematory, not a single Funeral Director <br />returned the call. A detail of the Funeral Directors response is attached. We were able to identify a <br />potential of 232 cremations annually in our primary vicinity and 158 in our secondary vicinity for a <br />total of 390. I expect that to develop slowly and my judgement is that only half of that is likely to <br />happen. However. we do not have complete data and the practice is growing so I suggest we look at <br />models of 200 and of 400 cremations annually. <br />Next steps: <br />Model Crematories at 200 and 400 cremations annually <br />Include model with 100 person Hall, parking, and meditation garden <br />DECIDE: Yes/No <br />Model Columbarium <br />DECIDE: Garden Columbarium, Chapel Columbarium, or both. Where located? <br />REVIEW Westview plans in view of declining burials and, if it is decided to proceed with a <br />Crematory, does the building design need modification and is the site adequate? A columbarium <br />should happen. <br />Page 4 of 4 <br />