WESTERN BUREAU – The Madden’s Funeral Home will, within another three months, open a state-of-the-art cemetery in St James, according to managing director, Reuel Madden.

“We will have a chapel, a crematory, gazebos and an operations office,” Madden told the Observer earlier this week.

The facility is to be constructed on 80 acres of the funeral home’s 257-acre Kirk Patrick Hall Estate at Orange, in the parish. It will be called “Dovecot of St James”.

Work on the site is already far advanced, and the crematory is expected to be up and running by the end of next month.

“Dovecot of St James, when completed, will be like a big Botanical Gardens; the vaults will be placed underground with a lawn effect on the top,” Madden explained. “People would not even realise that graves are there, if it wasn’t going to be for the aluminum plates that will be placed about two inches above the ground,” he added.

Meanwhile, the landscaping of the property is well underway and a number of exotic plants are already beginning to flourish. Construction work on the gazebos is nearing completion; so too is work on the roads and walkways leading to the complex.

Burials are expected to begin at the cemetery in June and Madden believes there will be brisk business.

“As soon as we get this (cemetery) going, I know that we are going to do very well because there is a need for it,” he said.

His company also has expansion plans for Hanover where its Lucea facility will be open for business as of next month. They had hoped to open that facility in early 2003.

However, work on the building came to a halt after the local authority served the company with a stop order, citing a breach of the Hanover Parish Council’s Building Act. Months later, after the relevant paperwork was submitted, the council gave the nod for the company to continue renovation work on the building.