[Lalalally]

I would definitely not write off the whole town because of this. Perhaps yes this particular house if it is within walking distance of the proposed site, but definitely not the whole town. Bethel is a great little town -- I love it. Good location too -- lots of employment centers are within reasonable commuting distance.

[beer belly]

Don't get me wrong....I like my little corner of Bethel, just don't think the Bethel resident has a say in local government issues. Great little over taxed town.

[jojoboulette]

Originally Posted by Lalalally

I would definitely not write off the whole town because of this. Perhaps yes this particular house if it is within walking distance of the proposed site, but definitely not the whole town. Bethel is a great little town -- I love it. Good location too -- lots of employment centers are within reasonable commuting distance.

Yes, not writing off whole town. Visited recently and really liked it.

My impression after more research on the crematorium issue is that that what they would be putting in would be an operation that does nothing but cremation. So, not like a funeral home that handles a few, but cremation would be all that they do. I find that a bit concerning to be so close to that, especially in regards to property values.

All that being said, my research turned up some interesting info, notably that 1/cremation is on the rise as values/religious orientations have changed in recent years; and 2/that many communities are having this same issue as funeral homes can no longer handle the requests they are getting for cremation, hence the need to build separate cremation facilities. One person in the industry (I think the head of some cremation society or something, didn't note who it was) said that at the rate we're going, we will have a 2 week wait for cremations by the year 2040 (!)

So... it looks like more and more town are going to be running up against this in the future.

I'm not sure what to think concerning mercury pollution. It does occur with cremations, some studies would indicate that it's very slight. But you know how they are with the studies... :/

[Lalalally]

I'm not familiar or well-versed regarding pollution/potential health concerns. I can say though that I grew up in a neighborhood in Brooklyn, not *too* far from the Queens border. There was a crematorium in Queens that sat up on a hill, which I could see from my house (or I should say, I could see it when it was "operating" -- big smoke cloud. Eek!). I bet though it's more controlled with less pollution escaping these days...I hope??

[Lalalally]

Originally Posted by beer belly

Don't get me wrong....I like my little corner of Bethel, just don't think the Bethel resident has a say in local government issues. Great little over taxed town.

Lol! Stop it -- it's a very NICE town. This is a bad time of year for all of us minions -- my town (NF) just had it's budget vote this weekend too. Not a huge increase -- but year after year, they just up the taxes a little bit more on us. Hahaha

[AnonChick]

I don't think a crematorium is a big deal. I know of one in particular, that I doubt anyone even realizes is a crematorium. It looks like just a really big old house (and it probably was, at one time), stuck in the middle of the block flanked by other big old houses, with a sign out front saying it's a funeral home, or Somethingorother Memorials or something like that.

I've never heard of anyone dying as a result of its existence, or getting sick from being near it or living near it or anything of that sort. I've never heard or read about any such problems with any crematoriums anywhere, ever. Is this some new phenomenon, where people are getting sick from living next to crematoriums or something?

Someone mentioned the mercury - don't you think the people who worked -at- the crematorium would be dropping like flies if it was that much of a risk?

If a legitimate business like that is willing to pay for the privilege of moving to an overtaxed, overburdened town, I say meet them with the Welcome Wagon and a coupon for free coffee, and be grateful for the added commerce. I mean yeah okay it's burning up dead people but it's not like the deceased are going to haunt the block and bring down the property value.

[jojoboulette]

Originally Posted by Lalalally

I'm not familiar or well-versed regarding pollution/potential health concerns. I can say though that I grew up in a neighborhood in Brooklyn, not *too* far from the Queens border. There was a crematorium in Queens that sat up on a hill, which I could see from my house (or I should say, I could see it when it was "operating" -- big smoke cloud. Eek!). I bet though it's more controlled with less pollution escaping these days...I hope??

It is, thankfully. It's possible to see a very, very faint 'vapor' from modern crematoriums today but that is 'secondary' vapor, apparently. There is an initial burn, then a 2nd burn of the burn, if you will, to avoid spewing objectionable smoke fumes into the air.

You will, however, still see a chimney from the facility and that alone many people find disturbing.

And the mercury from fillings and joint replacements will get back into the earth and atmosphere. I just don't know how much would be something to worry about. Every time you read that something is 'harmless', there's a report 10 years later telling you that uh, actually....? That stuff is REALLY harmful and we shouldn't have said that. And then they'll contradict that again 10 years later, so who really knows what to think?

It's a fact of life but not many people really want it in their back yards, understandably. I would bet that if it goes through it won't hurt values that much as they'll put it in a business park area. However, I'm still not sure I'd want to purchase property near there.

[jojoboulette]

Originally Posted by AnonChick

I don't think a crematorium is a big deal. I know of one in particular, that I doubt anyone even realizes is a crematorium. It looks like just a really big old house (and it probably was, at one time), stuck in the middle of the block flanked by other big old houses, with a sign out front saying it's a funeral home, or Somethingorother Memorials or something like that.

I've never heard of anyone dying as a result of its existence, or getting sick from being near it or living near it or anything of that sort. I've never heard or read about any such problems with any crematoriums anywhere, ever. Is this some new phenomenon, where people are getting sick from living next to crematoriums or something?

Someone mentioned the mercury - don't you think the people who worked -at- the crematorium would be dropping like flies if it was that much of a risk?

If a legitimate business like that is willing to pay for the privilege of moving to an overtaxed, overburdened town, I say meet them with the Welcome Wagon and a coupon for free coffee, and be grateful for the added commerce. I mean yeah okay it's burning up dead people but it's not like the deceased are going to haunt the block and bring down the property value.

Yes, I know what you mean. Many funeral homes actually have crematoriums at their facility. Some though, don't and 'send out' for that. Which is what I'm pretty sure the facility in Bethel is going to be. If I lived there, I wouldn't be happy about a 'factory' type crematorium going in, where all they do is cremation, especially with the number of cremations being requested/done on a significant rise and projected to continue increasing in the years to come. That's different than a funeral home doing a few cremations a week, or even in a day.

I wouldn't say it's a new phenomenon but awareness about environmental pollutants is much keener today than it used to be. We have dumped all kinds of things into the air, water and earth in the last 100-200 years, sometimes out of ignorance, but sometimes not (corporate greed.) There are all kinds of illnesses that are on the rise, some with inexplicable causes (autism, childhood cancers, just to name a few) and there are many who think that environmental pollutants have at least something to do with it. I'd have to say it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find out autism is linked to pollutants, but that's a whole other discussion.

At any rate, mercury is a highly toxic substance and you don't want to come in contact with even small amounts. What amount would be coming out of a crematorium that was disposing of bodies containing mercury all day long? I don't know for sure, but it's concerning to me. There are other pollutants from cremations to consider as well: chemicals in the burial container (some people have the entire coffin cremated along with the body), chemicals used in the burn process, and other things I didn't note specifically as I was researching but it's a long list of stuff that goes into the air with every burn. If you google it, you'll find all the details, trust me. I learned more today than I ever wanted to know about cremations, and it's how I plan to do things... lol

So... do I want my young child living within a mile of that? Or myself? I'm thinking no. Maybe I'm being overly cautious but there are other houses to buy. Maybe if it was my only choice, but it's not. And thank goodness for that.

[Rukh]

At first I was going to say, "what's the big deal?", but that death fog you've described sounds scary.

[AnonChick]

Again I ask:

If it's that dangerous, why then are the people who run them not dropping like flies? Have you seen any hazmat suits in these places? And prior to the design of the first useful hazmat suits - did you ever read any stories about crematorium employees becoming sick and dying from unexplained illnesses (which would of course be linked to burning corpses for a living)?

I'm just not seeing ANY link at all in this. No harm whatsoever, because if there was, we'd see some kind of trend with the people who run these places getting sick and dying from whatever people are worried will cause sickness and death among the citizenry.