City approves columbariums for cemetery

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Local residents wishing to have their ashes placed in Oakridge Cemetery may soon get their wish as the West Liberty City Council approved initial plans Tuesday, Oct. 20, to purchase four proposed 48-niche columbariums to be placed on solemn ground in the city-operated cemetery on the south side of West Liberty.

Talked about since December 2019, the city approved moving forward on the first-time project which will involve moving a war memorial stone in the cemetery and installing a circular area in the “soldier section” in the middle of the cemetery to accommodate the stone polished granite columbariums that can house as many as 96 urns, each 12-inch square space capable of holding two urns.

Working with city engineer Leo Foley of Veenstra & Kimm Engineering in Rock Island, the city said the $100,000 project could be ready for urns by Spring of 2021 as a tree would need to be removed from the grounds and concrete work completed before delivery of the giant units in March of next year.

The city approved the second option of the proposal by the council’s building and grounds committee headed by Diane Beranek and Dave Smith, totaling $99,956. Option one was for $77,456, but included just two units instead of four.

The work will also include landscaping. The columbariums will cost a total of $46,275 from Salem Stones in Salem, Ohio, as well as $31,158 in foundation work to be done by All-American Concrete in West Liberty.

The city is financing the project in providing $67,981 from the perpetual care fund to actually fund the gray-colored curved columbariums that will be made in China, as well as engineering costs. A Crees donation of $37,123 will help finance the concrete work, memorial moving and landscaping while the cemetery fund will finance the tree removal.

A variety of plaques will be available for each door to the columbarium to honor the memorial inside.

The committee has also looked at Timeless Columbaria in Pella, Iowa, but cost for the units were nearly twice as much as the firm in Ohio.

There has been no talk of what it will cost to place an urn in the columbarium.

The city said with more and more families electing to have bodies cremated, the columbariums give families an opportunity for other burial options.

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