The Centre County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, March 19, approved the purchase of a 16-door community columbarium from Happy Valley Monuments to store unclaimed cremated remains.
“This has been a project that has been a long time coming,” Julia Sprinkle, human services administrator for the Centre County government, said during the commissioners meeting. “We’d like to utilize this to house (Centre County’s) current 41 unclaimed individuals. The columbarium will allow us to have this be either the final resting place for those individuals or, should people come forward to claim those remains, we would be able to have access to them.”
The commissioners approved the request for $19,530, which will cover the cost of the columbarium, plus the shipping and transportation of it to Zion Cemetery and the installation. The columbarium will be placed thanks to an anonymous donation of five plots and maintenance fees for the plots.
“This is a once-in-a-224-year request,” said Commissioner Chair Mark Higgins, explaining how when no one comes forward for a deceased individual, the coroner’s office cremates the remains. The remains of the current 41 unclaimed individuals are being securely stored in the Willowbank building. However, Higgins noted the need for more space as the unclaimed remains have exceeded the space available in the current location.
Within the new columbarium, the remains will be catalogued so that, should someone come forward to claim the remains, the claimant will be able to easily access them.
“The commissioners would very much like to thank the family who donated the five burial plots and long-term maintenance that’s required for the community columbarium,” Higgins said. “With such a generous donation, the commissioners decided to purchase a large community columbarium that will hopefully hold several more decades of additional urns.”
Commissioner Vice Chair Amber Concepcion echoed Higgins’ statement, saying, “I’m really grateful for the donor who helped to make this possible and it seems like this will be an appropriately respectful way for us to provide a place for those remains to be stored in an appropriate manner and in respect of the people whose lives they represent.”
When the columbarium is installed, the commissioners plan to hold an interment service in honor of the unclaimed individuals. Higgins additionally noted that they plan to coordinate with the coroner’s office to plan interment services in the future for new remains.
“Unfortunately or regrettably, there are many folks out there that do not have any family or anybody to claim them in their posthumous state,” said Commissioner Steve Dershem, “This is an opportunity for us to provide them a respectful and dignified way of being interned.”
