Niche wall installed at Blaine Cemetery

Blaine Public Works Department utility foreman Steven Hrutfiord placed the first urn into Blaine Cemetery’s new niche wall February 2. The urn held the remains of K. Thomas, Hrutfiord’s cousin and the fourth-generation of the family buried in the cemetery. 

Blaine City Council approved purchasing the niche wall in 2019, and public works staff finished installing the site area and planting surrounding geraniums last year. The cemetery has space for three more niche walls, making for about 230 spots total, public works foreman Pat Freeman said. 

The city used to see 80 percent of people purchasing full burials and 20 percent opting for cremation burials, but Freeman said those numbers have shifted in recent years.

The niche wall gives people another option to honor a loved one while also keeping space in the cemetery, Freeman said. About 1,720 of the cemetery’s 2,754 plots are vacant, deputy city clerk Naomi Soulard said.

In 1934, the city took ownership of the cemetery, a nearly eight-acre property at 4175 H Street Road that was formed in 1888. The public works department maintains the cemetery grounds, and the city’s parks and cemetery board oversees cemetery operations.

It costs $2,000 to purchase a niche wall unit and $100 for the nice wall burial. A cremation burial costs $500.

Four parking spots will be added just south of the niche wall this summer, Freeman said. City council recently approved purchasing cemetery software that will digitize records, allow people to find loved ones and purchase vacant plots on the city’s website, Soulard said.