Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Last week, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed off on a bill revoking the grandfather status for Amigone Funeral Home on Sheridan Drive in Tonawanda, resulting in the forced shut down of their crematory, while allowing the funeral home to stay open.
In June of this year, State Sen. Sean Ryan and Assemblyman Bill Conrad passed the bill in Albany, which took away Amigone’s grandfathered status with its crematory, as well as the opportunity it had to relocate the combination funeral home-crematory as one entity.
With the Amigone crematory now being forced to shut down in the next 180 days, Assemblyman Conrad expressed some concern in an interview with WBEN.
"I cannot emphasize that the Amigone company, as well as the crematories around the area, we are facing a shortage, and we were trying to work with them to find a good solution before we had to come to this," said Conrad with Tom Puckett.
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Despite the concerns of Assemblyman Conrad, Tony Basile, president of the Erie-Niagara Funeral Directors Association (ENFDA) doesn't feel there's completely a shortage of crematories in Western New York.
"There's plenty of crematories here in the area - off the top of my head, I want to say there's between six and eight of them here in the Western New York area. All of the crematories currently operating, I would say, are able to handle the workload of all the different funeral homes around here without any issues," said Basile with WBEN. "I would say on a standard operating procedure, a normal day of business in our industry, the current crematories in place are able to handle the workload of all the different funeral homes from the Southern Tier upwards to Niagara County."
Basile adds there isn't a shortage of crematories across the nation, but there is one issue he has, in particular, with the number of crematories in New York State and across the region. It has to do with the Anti-Combination Act of 1998.
"The real issue in New York State, funeral homes and crematories have to be separate businesses. Unless you're grandfathered in like an Amigone or there are another handful of funeral homes throughout the state that are grandfathered in, the current law, and it's been in place for quite some time, is that a funeral home business has to be separate from crematory business. Crematories can only be owned by cemeteries here in New York," Basile said.
Basile says the state looks at the law as to avoid a conflict of interest, and also a way to not monopolize the industry. However, that's not how other states operate across the nation.
"If you get out of New York State - I would say mostly out of the Northeast - but our neighboring state of Pennsylvania, for example, a funeral home can own its own crematory. That is very common as you get away from the Northeast. Down South, out West, Midwest, very common that a lot of states there allow funeral homes to own their own crematory," Basile explained. "So really, in essence, it would kind of squash the thought that there would ever be any type of shortage or an issue more on the national level. If anything, it's going to be more friendly to the funeral director trying to complete the cremation process, if they're able to own their own on-site equipment. Or it might be a situation where a neighboring funeral home that will also help their colleagues in being able to do this, if a funeral home doesn't have their own equipment, or not able to get that up and running."
Right now in Western New York and for the majority of New York State, Basile believes the cremation rate, on average, is probably between 65% and 70% as compared to a full traditional service, where someone is laid out and buried, or entombed into a mausoleum where a casket is present. He says cremation trends are only increasing from here.
"There still are a lot of families that choose to have some type of open casket visitation before someone is cremated, but the end result of cremation as a disposition is still going to be in that 65%-to-70% range, whereas 10 years ago, 20 years ago, that number would have been much different. It would have been maybe a little closer to 50-50, if not, at one point, say the last 20 years where folks were still the majorly being buried," Basile noted. "But it's definitely the future of our business, it's been the present of our business for quite some time. Cremation is clearly the most chosen option for disposition."
There are a couple of factors, though, that Basile could see as a concern in the coming years with crematories in Western New York coming into short order. One of them is a continued increase in demand for cremations.
"Just the pure fact of the amount of baby boomers and the next generation of folks that are aging, that eventually will be in need of funeral services and funeral homes. It could be a situation where the number is 65%-to-70% now, but if that number's to escalate to 85%-90% in, say, the next 10 years, 20 years, at that point, will our current facilities be able to handle that? I'm not too sure," Basile pondered.
Basile says some of the crematories locally have drastically improved their equipment and machinery, and have also expanded their staff and hours to accommodate for the growth in cremations.
"Some crematories, in light of the amount of people being cremated, have expanded their hours, they're now open on weekends. If there's some type of extenuating circumstances, a lot of them will assist in helping a funeral director out, as far as getting a cremation done," he said. "There are some, though, that still operate your normal business hours, they do have older equipment. So it really will depend a lot, too, on the cemetery/crematory operators that own these entities and are in charge of this realm of the funeral industry, as to how much they continue to expand their services with better machinery, more efficient machinery, better hours and more staff to be able to accommodate the need for cremation."
Another concern for Basile that could result in a crematory shortage locally is another pandemic to hit.
"In New York City, for example, their crematory facilities could not handle the pure volume of people passing during [the COVID-19] pandemic, which resulted in a lot of folks in that New York City area, surrounding area, having their loved ones transported, either out of state or to other parts of New York State for the cremation to happen in a timely manner," Basile noted. "So any type of pandemic or something along those lines, global health event, would be a cause for concern going forward, because now of so many people choosing cremation."
When it comes to how many crematories there are in New York State or Western New York, Basile says it is all dependent on the state and the Division of Cemeteries.
"They determine that the existing crematories that are out there really are enough to handle the workload. And for any of the local crematories around here, they basically have to go through the state to be able to expand their operation, if they feel like they need more machines, more equipment, or if you try to open up a brand new crematory. All of that has to go through the state for approval," he explained.
Basile knows many of the local cemeteries that operate crematories in the last few years have tried to expand their operation to plan for the future, but have faced quite a challenge from the state level.
"There's a lot of hoops to jump through, and it is quite a process to be able to get that accomplished, to expand their businesses," Basile said. "I'm sure on their end of things, without me knowing anything specific, their teams of folks are really working hard to plan now for the future, rather than wait until something is to happen where they can't keep up with the workload."
Basile is hopeful that at some point between the state and the Division of Cemeteries, everything that oversees cemetery/crematory operations, eventually they will allow crematories to expand their operation to be able to suit the needs of those being cremated. But as of right now, everything has been status quo.
"It's unfortunate, even with the pandemic, that something couldn't have been done already to be able to handle the further workload. But I would imagine that a lot of these cemeteries that operate the crematories are planning now for the future. I would envision there'd be some type of eventual change in the future, but as to when that'll happen, I don't know," Basile said.