Cemetery finds its niche

Published 9:00 pm Friday, October 6, 2006

EDMONDS – Holly Hedges needed a place to keep a hot dog, mustard and some Tanqueray gin.

Now, she’s found it: the Edmonds Memorial Cemetery.

Hedges visited the city-run cemetery Thursday to pick out a niche in its new $800,000 columbarium, a granite wall in which people can place their loved one’s ashes – or “anything that fits,” cemetery sexton Cliff Edwards said.

Hedges’ former partner, Dan Miller, loved hot dogs, she said. He died two years ago at 51 of complications from pneumonia.

“He’d tell me he fed the dog, that’s why the hot dog was missing from my son’s lunch,” recalled Hedges, an Edmonds resident. “He had a great sense of humor.”

The city broke ground on the columbarium in January. With $2 million in niches for sale, the city hopes the columbarium can make the cemetery completely self-sustaining, said Brian McIntosh, the city parks and recreation director. The cemetery is budgeted under his department.

“The Cemetery Board’s been dreaming and wishing for this for 20 years,” McIntosh said of the seven-member volunteer board that oversees cemetery operations.

Edmonds is one of the few cities in the state to be in the cemetery business. The city took over the historic graveyard in 1981 after it had been neglected for several years. The cemetery, at the corner of 100th Avenue W. and 15th Street SW, was bought and immediately donated to the city by resident Larry Hubbard, who wanted to be buried there.

The first burial in the cemetery took place in 1891, a year after Edmonds was incorporated. City founder George Brackett’s grave can be found there, along with those of several Edmonds mayors and war veterans. Every year the city holds a Memorial Day program and tombstone tours.

The cemetery has one employee, Edwards, who handles everything from mowing the lawn to selling plots. He sports a dark blue shirt bearing the city of Edmonds logo and the word “gravedigger” in white embroidery on the front.

Edwards is paid $73,500 in salary and benefits from the city parks fund. The cemetery has been clearing an average of $40,000 a year, not counting Edwards’ salary, McIntosh said.

That money has gone toward saving for the columbarium, he said. The city put up $500,000 and obtained a $300,000 loan.

The 680 niches sell for between $1,450 and $4,950 apiece, with those at eye level and near the centerpiece fountain pulling down the highest prices.

The goal is to establish a fund that generates enough interest to cover all the cemetery expenses, including Edwards’ salary, |McIntosh said.

The endeavor is off to a good start. Sixteen niches were sold for $41,700 in the first two days of sales, Edwards said.

The niches, 12 inches tall, 12 inches wide and 14 1/2 inches deep, are covered with mahogany granite slabs. Eventually they’ll be fitted with vases for flowers.

“This is wonderful,” Hedges said while looking over the site.

She heard about the columbarium a year ago and has been waiting for it to be finished. Hedges said her partner’s ashes will be scattered on Whidbey Island, though some might go into the niche as well.

She picked out a spot facing west, she said, because “Dan always wanted to have a west-facing porch.”

Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.