County Leans To Cremation For Indigent

By ELLEN GEDALIUS The Tampa Tribune

Published: Oct 2, 2007

TAMPA - Every year, hundreds of people who die in Hillsborough County have no one willing or able to bury them.

Sometimes next of kin can't be found. Other times, those relatives can't afford a burial.

Hillsborough County has a program to help them, offering a choice of burial or cremation at taxpayers' expense.

In light of budget cuts, though, the county plans to take away that choice by offering cremation only.

"When you look at the budget, we have to try to make some decisions in the public's interest," said Dick Bailey, manager of operations for the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office.

The county commission is scheduled to vote on the proposal at its meeting Wednesday.

Last year, the county paid for 361 cremations and 75 burials, at a cost of about $280 for each cremation and $1,400 for each burial.

More recently, the county has paid $342 a cremation and $1,533 a burial.

Eliminating the burials is expected to save the county about $100,000 a year.

The county has been paying for the casket, a funeral director's fee, embalming, and opening and closing the grave site. Hillsborough does not pay for grave markers. Medical Examiner Vernard Adams said relatives of the deceased tend to erect monuments years later.

Hillsborough buries bodies at Rest Haven Memorial Park in Tampa.

Ron Mees, director of Florida Mortuary Services, said a shift to cremations will make little difference to his company, which has a county contract to do cremations and is one of four funeral homes to have an arrangement with the county for burials.

"You're not going to get rich from the county," Mees said. "It's more of a service."

The crematory retains the ashes for 120 days. After that, they are scattered in the Gulf of Mexico unless the family wants them.

Hillsborough's proposed policy outlines some exceptions. For example, a representative of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs can confirm that the person was a veteran and qualifies for reimbursement of some burial expenses.

Also, if the next of kin prefer burial over cremation for religious or other reasons, they will be referred to agencies that can help pay for burial expenses. Judaism generally opposes cremation.

Hillsborough isn't alone in moving toward a cremation-only policy. About six years ago, Pinellas County started doing cremations only because the county was running out of grave space. The county pays $450 a cremation, plus $45 to scatter the remains.

According to Hillsborough County's research, Broward, Miami-Dade, Hernando and Pasco have cremation-only policies.

Reporter Ellen Gedalius can be reached at (813) 259-7679 or egedalius@tampatrib.com.