The idea of building a crematorium could catch fire or flame out.
Jason Jones, owner of Hartman-Jones Funeral Home, met with McComb’s city board at Tuesday’s work session to explain the process of building and operating a crematorium.
“The technology has come a long way,” Jones said. “A lot of people think it’s like a furnace with a chimney. … The EPA highly regulates these facilities. Outside of Jackson, most of the metro areas in the state allow crematoriums. You can drive by and never know they’re in a building.”
Jones said crematoriums burn at 1,800 to 2,100 degrees, which destroys all particles and germs and doesn’t produce smoke or odors.
He said the company that makes the components sent letters to property owners within 500 feet of the funeral home to notify them of the plans for building a crematorium and ask whether there were any objections. Jones reported none.
However, City Judge Brandon Frazier, who raised objections when an amendment to city zoning was broached on April 2, said the owner of Quality Inn objected, as well as the owner of a day care, the manager of REM Mississippi’s Magnolia Place Day Program and workers at Hennington Wellness Center. All of those businesses and offices are along Scott Drive, as is Frazier’s office.
Frazier said he didn’t necessarily have a problem with the crematorium, but “I have a problem with the way this was presented. I don’t think the C2 (commercial zone) should be opened up to having crematoriums anywhere. … I think they should come before the board for a special exception every time one is proposed.”
Frazier also complained about the amount of natural gas the facility would burn, prompting Jones to joke, “Are we going to close down Penn’s then? There are businesses all along Delaware Avenue that burn a lot more gas than I will.”
City Administrator Kelvin Butler said he had fielded calls about the proposal, with some in favor and some opposed. Some who were initially opposed changed their minds, he said.
Jones said the main parts of the crematorium would cost $120,000, with other components and building modifications bringing the project up to about $175,000. With cremations making up about 30 percent of funerary business, “I’ve got to do this,” Jones said.
“It’s just a matter of whether I do this in town or build in my back yard.”
He said having a crematorium would keep his employees and other funeral homes from having to drive bodies to Hattiesburg to be cremated.
“I think we need to keep business in McComb,” Selectman Donovan Hill said. “We shouldn’t run people out of the city to conduct their business.”
Board members will consider the amendment to the zoning ordinance at the board meeting Tuesday.
