Council denies permit for Columbia Mortuary crematory

After hearing nearly two hours of testimony both for and against plans for a crematory at Columbia Mortuary, the Columbia Falls City Council Monday voted 5-0 to deny the mortuary a conditional use permit for the facility.

The mortuary had proposed building an 800-plus square foot garage addition to its existing funeral home on Fourth Avenue West that would house the furnace, called a retort.

But the retort, according to the plans, would have been just across the alley from the Honey Bear Preschool.

The mortuary had plans to move the retort from its current location at Austin Funeral Home in Whitefish to Columbia Falls.

The lease at the Austin location is up, funeral home manager Troy Knutson told council.

The mortuaries are both part of Carriage Services, a Texas-based publicly traded corporation with funeral homes across the nation.

Manager Troy Knutson and attorney Mark Buckwalter said the retort, which was manufactured in 2000, would not give off any noticeable smoke or odor. They also claimed the mount of mercury that would come from emissions would be far below other combustion, such as a diesel engine or a home wood stove.

“We’re here to put everyone at ease,” Buckwalter said. He then gave council a report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that showed, in short, that crematories didn’t have an impact on people or the environment.

The funeral home claimed it would cremate less than 120 bodies a year and would run about 240 hours a year as it takes about two hours to incinerate a body.

But opponents disputed the company’s assertion that there was no smoke or odor. Jana Price, the co-owner of the Back Room/Nite Owl Restaurant that is just north of the funeral home, said she objected to it because of its proximity to the preschool. She said she also visited the Austin Funeral Home crematory when it was “obviously in use” and there was a puff of smoke, waves of heat and an obvious odor.

Another woman claimed the smell was like “greasy burned popcorn.”

Members of the public didn’t object to crematories per se, they just objected to the location. As Price claimed, it’s a big corporation and it has the resources to build a facility elsewhere.

Honey Bear Preschool owner Crystal Hutchisson also raised concerns about traffic, the impact to her business and the potential impact on children, who could look right out the window and see the crematory. The preschool would be less than 30 feet from the crematory.

Restaurant owner Laurie Panasuk, who owns Laurie’s Deli, said the mortuary has been a good neighbor over the years, but also objected to the crematory and potential impacts.

A host of parents whose children attend the preschool also raised objections. Neighbors also complained that it would drag down property values in a city that’s on the upswing.

That argument held the most water with city council. They didn’t really buy the argument that it would impact public health. Councilman Mike Shepard noted, for example, that far more mercury is released into the atmosphere from a wildfire than from a crematory.

But they did agree that it would have detrimental effects on property values and the overall neighborhood and voted to deny the permit.

“I truly believe it would impact property values,” Mayor Don Barnhart noted after the vote.

The council decision goes against a planning board vote last week that suggested approval of the permit on a 4-2 vote. The planning board, however, is advisory only.

Councilman Dave Petersen and Councilwoman Jenny Lovering were absent from the meeting Monday.