EAST GRAND FORKS-- The East Grand Forks City Council is expected to significantly lower interment fees at Resurrection Cemetery at its meeting Tuesday.
The city currently charges $600 for interment and perpetual beautification of its grave sites, but is lowering the cost to $125 to reflect its move from actual digging.
Prices for interment were last updated in June 2013, according to East Grand Forks Parks and Recreation superintendent Reid Huttunen. At the time, the city would hire gravediggers directly. But for the last few years, funeral homes have been hiring their own diggers, so the city will update its pricing.
The new $125 price will cover perpetual beatification of burial plots, cemetery manager Brian Larson said. He added the cemetery has been using the $125 price for a while, but it had not been formally approved by the council.
Resurrection Cemetery continues to be a frequently used burial site on the East Side.
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"It's been pretty steady," Larson said.
He said there seems to have been an increase in the number of people interred there in recent years.
People have always needed grave sites, but their preferred method of eternal rest has changed over the years. Larson said in the past decade, the percentage of people opting to be cremated has risen considerably. It used to be that about one fourth of people chose cremation, but Larson figures it's closer to half now.
The cemetery has plenty of room for future plots, he said.
"Every two years or so, we add sites to stay ahead of the game," Larson said.
The City Council currently has the revised cemetery price list as part of its consent agenda for Tuesday's meeting.
At a workshop meeting last week, councilors discussed the possibility of replacing the cemetery's marble columbarium due to concerns the marble may fall apart.
