During the January 2, 2007 North Platte City Council meeting the Council will consider a Conditional Use Permit for a cremation center at a local Funeral Home. The funeral home is located in a B-1 Neighborhood Commercial Service District on fourth street. In the process of considering this agenda item, I’ve visited a crematory in Paxton, met with the owner of the Funeral Home and conducted research on cremation. I know more about cremation today than I did less than a week ago. The WikiPedia has a really good article on Cremation here. Statutes relating to funeral directors, embalming, and cremation funeral establishments is here.

I appreciated the opportunity to see the Paxton crematory in action. One Paxton resident I talked with said she asked if the crematory was in operation and was surprised when she learned it was being used. While the Paxton crematory sites on the edge of town the Broken Bow crematory is right down town. Someone I know from Broken Bow told me he’s heard no comments about the crematory at all. The state has record of 18 licensed crematories: There are four in Lincoln, 6 in Omaha, 2 in Scottsbluff and one in each of the following cities, Broken Bow, Gibbon, Grand Island, Hastings, Norfolk and Paxton.

I’m sure the public hearing scheduled to be part of the Council’s January 2nd meeting will be lively. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

[Update] The North Platte Bulletin has a story about the crematory on its web site here.