The City of Breezy Point owns the Pelican Woods Cemetery and
Nature Trail. This is a unique cemetery
as it was set up to take advantage of the woods and lands in a park like
setting with a walking trail that surrounds the cemetery property. The cemetery has been in existence since
about 2000.
To date 92 lots have been purchased and 53 persons have been
laid to rest there. Currently the cremains
to traditional burials ratio is running about 68% cremains. This trend is increasing with a state average
of 53%. With cremains there are
options. Ashes can be scattered about,
they can be buried, and some people prefer a Columbiaia placement.
The Breezy Point Cemetery Commission has wanted to establish
a columbarium for some time approaching the issue about 5 years ago. At that time funds were limited and details
hadn’t been sorted out so the issue did not move forward. However the Commission revisited the issue
this year towards the establishment of a columbarium.
A couple of proposals were received for
prebuilt columbarium that is trucked to the cemetery and installed on
site. The columbarium selected is
considered a 48 niche columbarium but actually has 60 niches. It is built with 24 double occupancy spaces
on each side with bonus single occupancy niches of 6 on each end making the
unit a 60 niche columbarium.
The vendor awarded the contract for this is Clearwater Stone
and Columbaria of St. Cloud, MN. The
cost for the slab and unit combined is $10,900.
Some additional installation costs will be incurred. It is anticipated
that the columbarium will be available around the end of October of 2014. Niche sales will commence shortly before
installation.
