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Crematory Plan Gains Approval

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By JOYCE McKENZIE

jmckenzie@tampatrib.com

Published: February 11, 2009

TEMPLE TERRACE - In the past three decades, data from the Cremation Association of North America show the number of cremations has more than tripled in this country.

Statistics gathered from the National Funeral Home Directors Association indicate that 48 percent of Florida deaths in 2005 resulted in cremations. In 2010, it estimates, that figure will be more than 50 percent.

Blount & Curry Funeral Home's Terrace Oaks Chapel has already exceeded that amount, said Mike White, director of cemetery and funeral operations. He estimates the outcome of 60 percent of the death arrangements at the Temple Terrace facility involves cremations in lieu of burials.

Currently, however, the bodies of people to be incinerated must be taken to a St. Petersburg crematory in a sister facility of the parent company, Stewart Enterprises. The need to transport the bodies across the Bay will soon be unnecessary, though.

On Feb. 3, the Temple Terrace City Council approved Blount & Curry's final site plan for adding an onsite crematory to its North 56th Street location, just south of East 127th Avenue. In 2006, the council adopted a resolution to allow the unit.

The plan meets local, state and federal health and safety standards. The pre-manufactured incinerator will go in what is now a garage at the north end of the 7,490-square-foot facility.

There will be modifications made to the building, including replacing the solid garage doors with louvered openings to meet fire code regulations. The crematory will be connected to a natural gas line on North 56th Street, and its hours of operation will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

A waiver to the required 5-foot landscaping buffer along the property's west side was granted because of an existing 6-foot masonry wall meant to shield the business from the residential neighborhood.

"I venture to say it will be at least four months down the road before we'll have everything in place," White said.

The crematory, he said, will also handle the needs of the three other Blount & Curry funeral homes in the county.

"What about the noise level?" asked Councilman Mark Knapp.

Joey Luckado, a representative from Lefti Environmental Solutions, hired by the funeral home to oversee the permitting requirements, equated the sound of the crematory to that of "an air conditioner operating inside a building."

Dixie Pereira and Nazareno Muzzi, whose home borders the wall, planned to speak out during the issue's public hearing but failed to arrive in time.

"We wanted to know why they couldn't locate the crematory farther from our property - maybe put it on the south side of the building closer the offices next door," said Pereira, who also was concerned about the potential of foul odors emitting from its exhaust stack.

Luckado said the state-of-the-art technology used for the crematory should eliminate any worries.

"The environmental protection regulations are very strict, and we've never had a complaint about the smell," he said.

Installing the unit in the south side of the building, he said, would require extensive renovations.

Pereira appeared to accept Luckado's explanations.

"I'm certainly not saying they the funeral home are bad neighbors. It's quite the contrary," she said.

Reporter Joyce McKenzie can be reached at (813) 865-4849.

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