Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 11, 1992 TAG: 9203110204
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
At its last two meetings, the county Board of Supervisors has discussed helping funeral homes that are stuck with burying county residents whose families can't pay.
"I don't think these funeral homes can afford to do that for nothing," Board Chairman Ira Long told his fellow supervisors Monday night.
W.S. "Buddy" McCoy, president of McCoy Funeral Home in Blacksburg, wrote to Long asking for help with the indigent burials. McCoy says that over the past eight months he has had to bury about a dozen poor people at his own expense.
In Christiansburg, Dick Horne, manager of Richardson-Horne Funeral Home, said he lost $11,194 last year and nearly $25,000 in the last three years on indigent funerals.
"I don't think it's the purpose of any funeral home to try to show a profit on an indigent funeral," Horne said. "If we could just simply break even we'd be tickled to death."
State law does not require a funeral home to accept an indigent for burial, but McCoy said he does as a public service. What would become of the bodies if he didn't? McCoy asked.
The burials most often involve families who cannot afford to pay, rather than people who die broke and without relatives, McCoy said. McCoy gets a lot of repeat business from the same indigent families, he said.
In the past, the welfare department reimbursed funeral homes $500 for burials. That money - part state and part local - came from the department's general relief fund, which also provided money for emergencies such as evictions, utility cutoffs and some medical aid.
Because of state funding cutbacks and heavy demands due to the recession, the general relief fund was closed last year after it ran out of money. That left the funeral homes without help to pay for the funerals.
But even with the reimbursement, the funeral homes were absorbing most of the cost.
The welfare department put a $2,000 cap on what funeral homes could charge for an indigent funeral and still get reimbursed the $500. But an average funeral without frills costs between $3,000 and $5,000, funeral directors said.
The cheapest casket wholesales for $200, and the cheapest concrete vault (vaults are required by most cemeteries) costs $240, McCoy said. Often the family does not have a burial plot. So he has to buy one and pay for the cost of digging the grave, too, McCoy said.
A burial also includes embalming, facilities for viewing the body, transportation and a graveside service.
"We get reimbursed for the casket, and the rest we have to give away," McCoy said.
The typical "welfare" casket is made from pressed board, covered with cloth, and a little smaller than a normal metal casket, Horne said.
Not long ago, Horne had to bury a 370-pound corpse. "I couldn't have put him on his side and put him in a welfare casket," he said. So he ended up burying the man in a $700 metal model.
In his letter to Long, McCoy suggested that the county also might want to set some land aside for an indigent cemetery. But County Administrator Betty Thomas said she was not sure the county wants to get into the cemetery business.
"Certainly the county wants to do what they can in a situation like this," Thomas added.
Supervisor Joe Gorman wondered Monday night whether it wouldn't be cheaper to cremate the bodies. But McCoy said he couldn't do that without the permission of the deceased's family.
The board asked Thomas to talk with the welfare department about the problem before the board's next meeting on March 23.
Also Monday night, the supervisors:
Accepted the recommendations of the county's Capital Improvements Committee for purchases under the 1992-93 budget. The county expects to have about $900,000 for capital improvements next year, which would cover the first 11 items on the committee's list of 25 to priorities.
Among those are a new tanker for the Riner Fire Department and several other pieces of equipment for fire departments and rescue squads.
Approved a resolution backing improvements to Virginia 114 and to Interstate 81 between Christiansburg and Roanoke, and restating the board's support for the direct link between Blacksburg and I-81 and the Alternate 3A U.S. 460 bypass in its entirety.
An effort by Supervisor Jim Moore to delete the reference to support for the direct link failed, 5-2. The resolution will be presented at a March 24 state Transportation Department hearing in Salem.
by CNB