Colonial Terrace installs county's first crematorium

The Colonial Terrace Funeral home in Eldorado has taken a significant step forward in serving the public with all funeral needs. Jon Poore, Colonial Terrace Funeral Home director said funeral home saw a need for a crematorium in the local community and moved to fill the service.

"The nearest crematorium is in Marion or Carbondale," Poore said. "I feel better with our customers never having to leave our care and I'm sure that the families feel better about this."

Colonial Terrace has been a licensed funeral home crematorium facility for the last month. In that time, they have preformed over a dozen cremation services for local families.

"We had to be licensed by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois State Comptroller, and also several area funeral home directors took the opportunity to become licensed in performing this service at our facility," Poore said. "Now, Saline County and the surrounding area has a place where complete, gentle and loving care for the deceased can be completed on site."

The new crematorium facility cost on the order of $150,000 and will be usable for some 2,300 cremations before State Regulations require the relining and refurbishment of the crematoria furnace. Colonial Terrace has chosen to erect an new addition to their funeral home to house the facility. Thursday, the Saline County Chamber of Commerce performed a celebratory ribbon cutting ceremony. Staff, owners and family as well as a selection of local industry and banking leaders attended.

The new facility will hold the crematorium furnace, a three-body chilled storage facility and all the related equipment required to complete the last funeral requirements of this type of burial.

Poore said in cremation the deceased are placed in a cardboard cremation container. The actual process of cremation is a double stage process that insured complete consumption of the deceased. Next, the ashes are placed in a stainless steel refiner, where artificial body parts, hip or other joint replacements for example, are extracted by powerful magnets.

"All that is left for the loved ones is pure ash," Poor said "Nothing but the organic remains of their relative."

This is a sad part of life, and a part that people dislike having to consider. But, everything has a beginning, a middle and an end. It is the hope of Colonial Terrace Funeral Home that they can provide gentle, loving and compassionate services in whatever method of burial for a beloved relative is desired by their survivors.