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Home My WebLink About2019-03-21-CSC-min�y w -AOR yrry . Minutes of the Lexington Ad Hoc Crematory Study Meeting n March 21, 2019 APRIL&", II,E XI NGTQ� Location and Time: 201 Bedford Street; 2nd Floor Training Room; 7:00 P.M. Members Present: Judith Crocker, John Flynn (Board of Health), Narain Bhatia, Sara Iverson, Bridger McGaw (arrived 7:30pm), George Burnell (EDAC — arrived 9:15pm) Members Absent: Msgr. Paul Garrity, David Pinsonneault (DPW liaison), Carolyn Kosnoff Others Present: Sanjay Padaki (Appropriation liaison), Sandy Beebee (Capital Expenditures liaison — arrived 7:20pm), Douglas Lucente (Chair, and Board of Selectmen liaison) Documents Presented: Most documents discussed Ad Hoc Crematory Study committee meetings can be found on this shared google drive: https;A drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GgbEsOCpzhUbYXXoxKaa6jfOtYdU5FW?usp=sharing Mr. Burnell's Crematory report dated 3/20/2019 is attached to these minutes. Mr. Lucente called the meeting to order at 7:10 pm. The committee approved minutes from the February 21, 2019 and March 12, 2019 meetings. The goal of the meeting was to prepare the written report and presentation for Town Meeting. The objective was to make the report available on April 3 d, 2019. The committee reviewed the information that should be included in the interim report. The following votes were taken at the meeting. Recommendation Committee Vote Design the proposed Westview Cemetery Facility addition- ready for a potential future crematory. 7-0 A potential future crematory should not be built separately from the proposed Westview Cemetery Facility. 5-1-1* A potential future crematory should accommodate a viewing area suitable for up to 25 people. 6-1 A potential future crematory should have up to two retorts. 7-0 *Maiori View: A Crematory viewing area in Lexington should be used for short duration witnessing of the start of the cremation process. Minori View: This individual was not ready to take a position at that time. Mr. McGaw displayed the latest floor -plan for the Westview Cemetery building, which will also be presented at Town Meeting. He felt the latest building design met the requirements for a crematory, and the viewing area accommodates 25 visitors standing and 10 seated. A crematory addition would be minimally disruptive, mainly requiring the addition of new walls. Page 1 of 4 Lexington Ad Hoc Crematory Study Meeting February 6, 2019 He suggested that the committee should reach out to the Massachusetts government to determine if any changes to funeral, crematory, or cemetery regulations were being considered. He also suggested the committee should further research if other nearby towns were considering building a crematory. Mr. Burnell expressed concerns about the concept of building a crematory with a small viewing area. Most of the funeral directors he spoke with recommended a 100-150 person capacity crematory. Given the decline in traditional burials, the crematory could be important for the Westview operations in the future. He believed the Town should wait until the committee finished its analysis before appropriating further funds for the Westview Maintenance Building. Mr. Lucente reviewed the committee members' presentation, and coordinating with DPW and the 1, 2019 to vote on the final report. The committee adjourned at 10:35pm. DRAFT CREMATORY REPORT 3/20/2019 responsibilities for producing the report and PBC. The committee set a meeting date of April Page 2 of 4 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 Lexington Ad Hoc Crematory Study Meeting February 6, 2019 Mt Auburn is universally recognized as the finest Crematory/Cemetery. Newton is highly regarded. The most referenced facility for service is Merrimack. The most referenced as an example for us is Linwood in Peabody. In addition to a Hall/chapel, we will be expected to have a Meditation Garden, parking lot, and double roadway. Some examples of pricing: Cremation only: Mt Auburn $410, St Michaels $275 (includes return of ashes), Duxbury $ Alternate Services: Boston Cremation (St, Michaels Cemetery) Simple Cremation ($1,495) Transportation, permits, cremation, Med Examiner fee Cremation with Memorial Service ($2,270) Open casket funeral with cremation ($3,995) Massachusetts Legacy Cremation Services ($695): Transportation, permits, cremation Major Risk: will other cemeteries open crematories (easy to do — 40% of funeral homes nationwide have/will have a crematory)? Furthermore, there is active lobbying to allow Massachusetts Funeral Homes to have retorts as they do in New Hampshire and most other states. My discussions with Funeral Directors fell into only two camps: either they had deep relationships with their crematory and could not envision changing or they had a modest interest and could see a partial relationship developing over time provided our effort was spotless. Tellingly, whenever I left a callback message indicating it was about building a crematory, not a single Funeral Director returned the call. A detail of the Funeral Directors response is attached. We were able to identify a potential of 232 cremations annually in our primary vicinity and 158 in our secondary vicinity for a total of 390. I expect that to develop slowly and my judgement is that only half of that is likely to happen. However. we do not have complete data and the practice is growing so I suggest we look at models of 200 and of 400 cremations annually. Next steps: Model Crematories at 200 and 400 cremations annually Include model with 100 person Hall, parking, and meditation garden DECIDE: Yes/No Model Columbarium DECIDE: Garden Columbarium, Chapel Columbarium, or both. Where located? REVIEW Westview plans in view of declining burials and, if it is decided to proceed with a Crematory, does the building design need modification and is the site adequate? A columbarium should happen. Page 4 of 4