By JEFF ROBERTS
White Rock
My father passed away recently, a resident of Los Alamos for 60 years. We wanted to make arrangements to lay his urn next to my mother in Guaje Pines Cemetery, in an adjoining plot they had purchased years ago.
The plots already shared the marker with both their names. We were going to make arrangements in December, however the heavy snow precluded the internment, and were asked to postpone. We held the funeral, but waited as requested to bury the remains.
A few weeks ago I inquired at the county to begin the process for the internment. To my astonishment, I was informed there had been a price increase that took effect Jan. 1 of this year. The increase? 2000%! yes you read that right two thousand percent. The old fee was low to provide a service to the community, and the new improved fee structure is supposed to reflect “market analysis”. So just to place an urn in the ground in a previously purchased plot is now $1000, with no other service needed. This does not include the cost of the plot, nor the cost of setting the marker, nor the higher cost of placing a casket.
We were told we should have attended the council meeting when the rate structure had been approved, but I guess we missed that one. So anyone that suffers the loss of a loved one needs to plan on spending $2,000-$3,000 in addition to the funeral arrangements. This may be unaffordable to many of our community and force some folks to go elsewhere, but my parents loved Los Alamos and wanted to stay here. Well at least you can probably take a free ride on the bus to get there.
