Clear Lake council approves increases in cemetery pricing

CLEAR LAKE — The Clear Lake City Council this week approved increases in fees at the Municipal Cemetery.

Public Works Director Jeremy Korenberg says he re-examined prices after the council back in March approved the construction of additional columbarium units. The cost for columbarium niches will be increasing to cover that construction.   “The old cost was around $900 and $1300 depending on where you were at on the columbarium. With the new coasts, to cover the new costs and engravings, our suggested price would be the standard niches would be $1600, and the corner niches would be $1750. The standard niches are the ones on ends that have two facings, so essentially you have one piece of granite that two niches share. Then the ones on the corner you get that whole piece of granite.”

Korenberg says there will also be increases in the costs for grave openings and closings as rates have not been adjusted recently.  “I just kind of looked at the number of hours we put into an opening on average. Sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less just depending on the weather and the conditions and the amount of landscaping, it can vary greatly. I just kind of looked at that, looked at where we were prior, and then looked around at some other cemeteries, just trying to create an increase that covers our costs just a little bit better.”

The council unanimously approved the prices changes