Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - A bill in Albany that has recently been passed by the State Legislature could soon shut down the controversial crematory at the Amigone Funeral Home on Sheridan Drive in the Town of Tonawanda.
New York State Sen. Sean Ryan and Assemblyman Bill Conrad announced that their legislation to revoke the grandfathered status that allows Amigone Funeral Home to operate its Sheridan Park crematory has passed both the Senate and Assembly.
"[The Amigone crematory] on Sheridan Drive has just been a problem for almost 20 years," said Sen. Ryan in an interview with WBEN. "They've had problems, they were shut down, they reopened, they had problems again. And when I say they have problems, they've been shut down by the Department of Environmental Conservation because of a faulty operation, and when that happened, they spewed black smoke full of particulate matter all over the community. And we know that smoke is coming from cremating human remains, so it's been quite an environmental problem for the neighbors."
The controversial crematory was closed from 2012 to 2018 for violating state clean air laws, and again in 2020 after releasing black smoke into their air for more than an hour due to the failure of its pollution control system.
"This is something the town has been pressing, working with our state legislators to put through for a couple of years now. This is welcome news to the town and the residents over there near Amigone Funeral Home on Sheridan Drive," said Tonawanda Town Supervisor Joe Emminger with WBEN. "We just hope the Amigones, who have been in our town for 50-60 years or longer, are now able to do what they said they always want to do. They always said they wanted to move out of the town, if they could, with their crematory. Now this affords them that opportunity, so it could be good news for all parties."
Now the bill will head to the desk of New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to await her signature. Once signed into law, it will force Amigone to close the crematory. Sen. Ryan is hopeful the bill will be signed by the governor by the end of the year.
"Then that'll give Amigone a few more months to move their crematorium by their own volition and not face any penalties," the State Senator said. "If they move before the bill is signed into law, they'll be able to keep their crematorium open. But it'll be at a location that's more suitable for a crematorium, not in the middle of a densely-populated neighborhood."
Since the passage of the Anti-Combination Act in 1998, which prevented funeral homes from operating crematories, existing crematories operated by grandfathered funeral entities have been unable to relocate without losing their grandfathered status.
In 2021, Sen. Ryan and Assemblyman Conrad passed legislation granting Amigone an exemption to this law, allowing them to relocate the crematory to a non-residential area approved by the Town of Tonawanda. Three years later, the crematory is still operating in its original location.
Not only does the new legislation revokes Amigone’s grandfathered status, it will also revoke the opportunity both legislators gave Amigone to relocate the combination crematory/funeral home as one entity.
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Both Sen. Ryan and Emminger feel this bill, if signed into law by Gov. Hochul, will have a positive impact on residents and business in-and-around the funeral home on Sheridan Drive.
"They've made complaints over the years, often their complaints were dismissed. But as recently as 2020, then councilmember Shannon Patch was driving by the area and videotape, for herself, black smoke belching out of the smokestacks. But not for that videotape, Amigone would have claimed that never happened. That's what started off the next round of problems, and we've been fighting that since 2020. All the while, encouraging Amigone to move their location," Sen. Ryan said.
Emminger feels the stigma surrounding that neighborhood will finally be removed once Amigone is forced to close its crematorium.
"It doesn't affect a large portion of our town, but it certainly is one that has lived with this for over a couple of decades now," he said. "We think they should be very happy, as well as their neighbors. They can go out and enjoy their backyards again."
Ryan says residents in Tonawanda have continued to express their concerns with him over the crematory. This is especially the case when the weather begins to make the turn from winter to spring.
"[As] people are opening their pools and getting their lounge chairs out, they become worried. Is there going to be a problem at the crematorium, another malfunction that's going to leave their backyards and their furniture covered with black soot from human remains?," Ryan said. "So usually around May is when people start calling, and they're really concerned with, 'Am I going to be OK?', or, 'Is this gonna be another bad summer?'"
As for Emminger, the concerns from his residents has always been the odors and the hours they're burning at Amigone.
"They're burning at hours they shouldn't be burning, and the odors are still present. This is a 'he said, she said' situation, so I really think this is a good decision and good legislation for all parties," Emminger said. "Hopefully everybody can go on living our lives, and the most important thing is the residents can go out there in their backyards, and knowing they won't have to worry about this in a few months."
As for conversations with those at the Amigone Funeral Home, not only have those talks resulted in no action, they haven't been had in a while.
"It's unfortunate that we're at this position, but we really tried to work with them to get them to realize what they're putting the neighborhood through. They've just not been a good community partner," Sen. Ryan said.
Emminger adds there had actually been a new location picked for the crematory in the town some time ago, but a move couldn't be done because the laws wouldn't allow it, at that time.
"It's a special kind of property that they're looking for, it's gotta go in the right neighborhood. But we haven't had any conversations, I haven't had any conversations with them in years. And I don't know what they've been thinking," Emminger said. "If they're looking to stay in the town or move out of the town, I'm not aware."
WBEN reached out to Amigone Funeral Home for comment on the matter, but received no response.