Wartenberg: funeral parlor would be "very, very important"

Created: 01/28/2022, 19:00

By: Markus Schwarzkugler

Classic earth graves are also in less and less demand at the Wartenberg cemetery.

The unused space could be used for a funeral parlor.

Cemetery wall still has to wait Money for first sketches © Roland Albrecht

The Wartenberg finance committee discussed the possible construction of a funeral parlor.

Financially nothing is going right now.

Wartenberg – The financial situation of the market town of Wartenberg is and remains tense.

The starting position for the meeting of the main and finance committee on Wednesday was correspondingly exciting.

On the agenda was the preliminary discussion of the list of projects for the budget for the current year.

Accordingly, topics such as school expansion or Kleinfeld West were discussed intensively (detailed report follows).

For some projects, however, the money is simply not enough at the moment, even if some topics have been circulating for years.

A prime example of this is the cemetery.

Keywords: construction of a funeral parlor and renovation of the cemetery wall.

As has been reported several times, the wall, which is no longer quite so fresh, has long been in need of renovation.

Around 100,000 euros are roughly estimated for this in the project list.

"However, there is no money," said Mayor Christian Pröbst (CSU).

"But we have to do it." That's why the amount of money "was shifted to 2024".

Even more interesting: In the carefully prepared list of “project requests” there is half a million euros for the construction of a funeral home.

You just have to "simply plan it," said Pröbst.

Pastor Gregor Bartkowski said in an interview with our newspaper: "It has been overdue for years." He also knows about the financial situation of the community and reports on various conversations with the mayor in recent years.

"We have about 5,500 residents, just half are members of one of the churches," says Bartkowski.

Even non-Christian citizens would like to say goodbye to their deceased relatives with dignity, which would make a funeral parlor possible.

"We have one of the most beautiful cemeteries, but only a morgue," says Bartkowski.

That is definitely "a minus".

The market town of Wartenberg is responsible for the funeral services.

Since the cemetery is leased to the political community, the construction of a funeral parlor would also be the responsibility of the market community.

The need also exists from the point of view of the members of the Finance Committee.

"There are more and more people who have nothing to do with the church," said Franz Ganslmaier (FWG), among others.

The unanimous tenor also in the committee: These people should also be able to say goodbye to their relatives with dignity.

“After all the scandals, people are leaving the church.

And the younger generation is different anyway," noted Martina Scheyhing (Greens).

"A small cemetery church is already there, but it belongs to the church foundation," says Pastor Bartkowski.

At the moment there are only “very small funeral services with around 20 people”.

The Evangelical Church may use the premises if necessary.

"We would have space in the forecourt," said Pröbst in the committee.

Maybe you could "cover something" there.

For Eduard Ertl (Neue Mitte), the ideal solution would be to expand the existing morgue.

However, this is difficult in terms of space.

There may be great opportunities in the eastern area of ​​the cemetery.

There would still be room for some earth graves.

However, there is not really a demand for it.

"Last year we only awarded one grave," made Pröbst sit up and take notice.

"The trend is towards the ballot box," agrees Bartkowski.

The logical consequence, because urn graves require less space, among other things: there would be more space for a funeral parlor.

For this year you could simply put 10,000 euros in the budget - "for a few sketches," Pröbst suggested.

The entire market council will soon be dealing with the subject.

Whenever such a hall came: "It would be very, very important," says Pastor Bartkowski.

Cemetery wall will have to wait

Money for first sketches