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Taphophilia (dot) Com...
A repository of morbid curiosities:
Thanatology and Taphophile Issues, Cemetery,
Funeral Industry and Death Related News.
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A burning issue: Neighbors, funeral home face-off over crematory |
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Written by DeadGirl
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Wednesday, 22 June 2005 |
ENFIELD -- The crematory at Leete-Stevens funeral home has been in operation for more than six years, but the Planning and Zoning Commission, under direction from state courts, is set to reopen the funeral home's application and decide once again whether or not to approve the crematory.
Several neighbors of the South Road funeral home -- including resident Penny Urbanowicz, who has been fighting Leete-Stevens in court for nearly seven years -- are planning to blast the crematory at the hearing, saying it is releasing hazardous materials into the neighborhood.
"The body is not pure when it's being incinerated," Urbanowicz said Tuesday.
She contends that when bodies are cremated at Leete-Stevens chemicals from the deceased, including mercury from dental fillings, embalming materials, and residual cancer treatment substances, are released into the air.
She also says that chemicals from the casket and clothing on the body are hazardous.
"These all give off carcinogens," she said.
To generate publicity about the hearing and her cause, Urbanowicz and others have put up signs around town saying, "Stop residential incineration," with the date and time of the hearing.
Urbanowicz, who has lived on South Road her entire life, said the crematory also gives off an odor when in operation.
"It's not a smell you want to smell," she said. "It's a sickening smell."
Urbanowicz's Bloomfield-based lawyer, David Baram, said that the state Department of Environmental Protection has a list of allowable emissions from crematories, which includes mercury and formaldehyde. But Baram and Urbanowicz say that cremations should take place in an industrial area or near a cemetery, not in a residential neighborhood like South Road.
Leete-Stevens is a family-owned funeral home that has been in operation since 1881.
The Planning and Zoning Commission approved a special use permit for the crematory in 1998.
During the public hearing process of that application a small change was made to the plans to move the crematory further back in Leete-Stevens' lot.
According to the state Appellate Court, the commission erred by not giving the public proper notice of the hearing and took testimony on the altered application without the notice having been published.
The approval was given at a later meeting that was properly noticed.
"It's a very technical issue," Town Planner José Giner said Tuesday.
Giner said that since he began his job with the town shortly after the crematory's approval this is the first time a state court has ordered an application reopened.
The process of reopening it will be the same as any other application that comes before the commission, Giner said. The commission will take testimony both for and against the application and can then issue a decision that night or continue the hearing to a later date, which Giner said is likely.
Leete-Stevens' Windsor Locks-based lawyer, Thomas Fahey, noted on Tuesday that the court's ruling has nothing to do with the operations at the crematory.
"The bottom line was that you needed to have an new notice," he said. "So this is the new notice."
Fahey declined to rebut Urbanowicz's claims about the hazardous materials coming from the crematory, saying that he would rather wait until Thursday's meeting.
"We'll be addressing that in great detail at the hearing," he said, adding that he and Leete-Stevens have answers for their opponents' questions.
Fahey said he doesn't see why the commission wouldn't grant Leete-Stevens approval a second time.
"I was optimistic when I went in 1998 and I haven't see anything to change my position," he said.
Source: Journal Inquirer
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Taphophilia?
taphophilia (taf′ō-fil′ē-ă)
ORIGIN:
From the Greek words taphos, meaning "tomb" or "sepulcher" and philia, meaning "attraction or affinity to something, in particular the love or obsession with something"
DEFINITION: 1. An excessive interest in graves and cemeteries. 2. A love or fondness for funerals, graves, and cemeteries. 3. In psychiatry, a morbid attraction to graves and cemeteries
Quote Repository
“The living come with grassy tread To read the gravestones on the hill; The graveyard draws the living still, But never anymore the dead. The verses in it say and say: 'The ones who living come today To read the stones and go away Tomorrow dead will come to stay.'” by Robert Frost from 1923 N
Shirtless and Sculpted
The Men of Mortuaries 2008 Calendar is now available! All sale proceeds benefit KAMMCARES, a breast cancer foundation.
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