The City of Kenai is in the design phase of a columbarium for the city’s cemetery.
Parks and Recreation Director Bob Frates said the city has chosen a location just north of the existing cemetery gazebo to place the structure.
Frates: “A columbarium is an alternative for a traditional burial, essentially what it’s comprised of is a granite structure that allows for individual urns, or ashes, to be placed in niches.”
The preliminary design for Kenai’s columbarium will include around 150 niches which families will be able to purchase individual niches in a long-term lease.
Frates said if the bid process goes well, the city could see the columbarium installed by the fall or next spring.
Frates: “It’s not a generic kind of thing that you go and buy off of the shelf, they’re custom made so a lot of times, just like anything else if you’ve got some custom designs going it’s going to take some time for that process to occur.”
He estimated the columbarium could cost around $40,000 to $60,000.