Crematory complies with residents requests at Sheridan Drive location

After years of residents bringing their concerns of the cremation of human remains to the Town of Tonawanda Town Board, the New York Sate Attorney Generals Office and many other outlets, their voices have finally been heard.

The cremation operations, conducted by Sheridan Park, Inc., for Amigone Funeral Home on Sheridan Drive, Town of Tonawanda, have been temporarily ceased.

The funeral home has agreed to cease crematory operations at the 2600 Sheridan Drive location for the next six months and pursue looking elsewhere for the process to be conducted.

The town board has consistently been addressed by residents who live in the surrounding area of Amigone Funeral Home and have noted the odor of body acid, ashes from human remains burning holes in their tents and landing on their plates of food during family barbecues and picnics, etc.

They have contacted officials at the Department of Environmental Conservation on more than one occasion, who have then sent out a representative that ultimately put truth to their assumptions of what they were being exposed to. Amigone was previously asked to replace their smoke stack, which they did, in order to reduce the occurrence of these actions. However, this did not solve the occurrence.

The funeral home was able to operate their facility under the conditions of meeting an odorless and noiseless process. By not meeting these requirements, Amigone was no longer complying.

After receiving numerous accounts of complaints from residents, the Attorney Generals Office has reached an agreement with Sheridan Park, Inc., which will result in the termination of use of their crematory for the next six months.

During those six months, the funeral home has the choice to seek other alternatives for relocation. In the event the funeral home chooses not to seek relocation and the amount of emissions seeping into the air is not ceased, the Attorney Generals Office has the authority to take legal action.

“By making this announcement, we hope to find some sort of resolution,” said Michelle Duffy, representative from the press office of the Attorney General. “We have been getting complaints for a while and this was the right decision for now. I can’t tell you what will happen after six months. It’s the funeral homes decision is they choose to relocate.”

According to a release from the Attorney General’s Office, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman recently announced the agreement between his office and Sheridan Parks, Inc., includes terms of the funeral home ‘pursuing solutions to eliminate odor, particles, smoke and other emissions that have been the source of persistent community complaints.’

Anthony Amigone Jr. of Amigone Funeral Home noted the establishment is trying to do the right thing to please all parties involved.

“We’re doing our best to try and do the right thing. However, there are steps that have to be taken to get there,” said Anthony.

He added it is too soon to tell if the crematory operations will be relocated at this time.