By Tara Figurski
Staff Writer
The cremation garden in Silent Home Cemetery in Truro Township is now completed.
In 2014, the Truro Township trustees approved allocating $6,000 from the cemetery fund to establish the cremation garden.
Stan Knoderer, Truro Township road and cemetery superintendent, said the cremation garden provides township residents another option that is more affordable than a traditional burial. Township officials have yet to determine a price point for purchasing a spot in the cremation garden, but sales will start in mid-June.
“More and more families are choosing cremation,” Knoderer said.
According to Knoderer, the gardens were designed by Brian Kocher of Fischer’s Gardens. Once the location was selected for the cemetery, Kocher devised a plan for the cremation garden.
“There are three standing gardens separated by a stone walkway,” said Knoderer, adding that landscaping includes boxwood shrubs, dogwood trees and a variety of flowers.
“The biggest challenge was choosing an ideal location given the space that we had to work with,” Knoderer said.
There were a variety of spots in the nine acre cemetery where the gardens could be located, but developers eventually chose a place near the entrance of the cemetery.
If you turn left when you when you enter Silent Homes cemetery, the cremation garden is located in the open space before the older section of the cemetery, Knoderer said.
“So far people who have come into the cemetery have made favorable comments,” Knoderer said.
At least one family has already contacted Knoderer about purchasing one of the 90 available slots.
The spots are 10 by 10 inches above ground granite squares. Patrons will have the option to chose a Missouri red stone or a Georgia gray stone.
“We will offer families a choice of stone and location,” Knoderer said.
Designers broke ground on the project in early November expecting to get some work done on the project prior to winter.
“But we had an early onset of winter and did not progress as quickly as I had hoped,” Knoderer said.
Knoderer said the space in the cremation garden will last the township 12 to 15 years. He anticipates selling 10 spaces per year and being at full capacity by 2024.
“This is something we have been wanting to do for a long time, because cremation is getting to be quite a large way of burial,” said Truro Township Trustee Barb Strussion.
She said the Eubanks family’s $5,000 donation to the township’s cemetery fund made the cremation garden possible.
“(The cremation garden) adds a lot of beauty to the cemetery,” Strussion said. “We are blessed and fortunate to have this.”
