By Tara Figurski
Staff Writer
The Truro Township trustees approved allocating $6,000 out of the township’s cemetery fund to establish a cremation garden at Silent Home Cemetery.
Stan Knoderer, road and cemetery superintendent, has been working with Sam Kocher, Fisher’s Gardens, to develop the plans for the cremation garden. The plans include three separate gardens flanked by a stone walkway. Landscaping around the cremation garden will feature shrubs and dogwood trees.
Trustee Pat Mahaffey asked why Knoderer chose to work with Fisher’s Gardens to design the cremation garden.
“They are close by and very good,” Knoderer said.
Trustee Barbara Strussion said that Sam Kocher has a college degree in landscape design.
Knoderer said if you turn left when you enter Silent Home Cemetery, the cremation garden will be located in the open space of before the older section of the cemetery.
“It will be visible from the road,” he said.
Most of money for the project came from a $5,000 donation the Eubanks family made to the township, Knoderer said. He said the township could see an $80,000 net profit from the establishment of the cremation garden. Knoderer anticipates the space will last the township 12 to 15 years.
He anticipates there will be 92 plots available for purchase in the cremation garden. The plots will be two and a half feet by two and a half feet. When marketing the plots, Knoderer plans to include a burial fee.
Strussion said the cremation garden will resemble the cremation garden at Glen Rest Memorial Estates in Reynoldsburg.
“Ours will look like the Taj Mahal,” Knoderer said.
Knoderer said he anticipates work on the cremation gardens to begin within the next 10 days. He said he has already started moving dirt into the cemetery for the project as he has acquired it.
“I am waiting on a quote for the monuments,” he added.
While the Silent Home Cemetery is located in Truro Township, burial in the cemetery is not restricted to residents of the township,” Knoderer said.
“It is available to everyone,” he said.
