City committees weigh cemetery plot options

Libby city officials are considering a plan that would change the burial rules for gravesites at Libby Cemetery.

Councilwoman and Park Committee Chairwoman Peggy Williams said committee members are considering a plan that would allow the cremated remains of another to be buried at existing gravesites.

Currently, city ordinance allows for one body and the cremated remains — cremains — of another to be buried at a single gravesite at Libby Cemetery.

“Right now, we allow for one body and one cremated remains,” Williams said. “We are considering a second cremated remains only. Not two bodies.”

Williams said the recommendation, if approved by the Park Committee, will then be handed up to the full City Council for approval. If the council OKs the recommendation, it would then go to the Ordinance Committee, which she also chairs.

The request for the additional cremations came from a family through Steve Schnackenberg, funeral director at Schnackenberg & Nelson Funeral Home in Libby.

Schnackenberg said a family purchased a plot at Libby Cemetery for a husband with the idea the wife would be joined there. However, the couple’s daughter died before the surviving widow, and now the family wants to add the daughter to the site.

“It just makes a lot of sense for the city,” Schnackenberg said, indicating it could extend the life of the cemetery. “This is already being done in other cemeteries.”

In addition to extending the life of Libby Cemetery, it could generate more money for the city by allowing more sales at existing sites.

“It just makes good business sense, too,” Schnackenberg said.

Currently, the cemetery has three unsold blocks, Schnackenberg estimated. 

Schnackenberg said the family will bury the daughter’s cremains early next month.