by RICK DANLEY // September 21, 2016
One local gentleman, having shuffled off his mortal coil about a week ago, is doing more to influence county policy from the Great Beyond than he was ever likely to manage in his lifetime.
Iola’s Feuerborn Family Funeral Service is in possession of a deceased individual whose sister is either unwilling or unable to pay for proper burial.
“So we’ve got two issues here,” explained the funeral home’s owner, Reuben Feuerborn, who appeared before the county commission Tuesday morning. “Number one, the legal direction of the disposition, which, in Kansas, comes from the next of kin. And then, two: Who’s paying?” In 2010, succumbing to budget pressures, Kansas did away with the $550 burial benefit that previously went toward helping poor families cover funeral expenses. “At that point the state gave another unfunded mandate to you guys and made it the county’s responsibility.”
And so it stands that, in Kansas, when an individual dies and authorities are unable to locate next of kin, or relatives can’t or won’t pay for funeral services, local taxpayers absorb the costs.
And while statute clearly locates responsibility at county-level, explained counselor Alan Weber, Allen County currently lacks a clear policy for handling so-called “indigent burial.”
Just because the law lists the decedent’s family as the party of first priority in these matters, emphasized Weber, if an entity “were to try to sue a family member for funeral costs, I don’t think you’d have much luck, unless [the family] had arranged services. It’s really a moral obligation more than a legal obligation.”
All three commissioners agreed with Feuerborn and Weber that the county should design a burial policy that could be consistently invoked in such cases.
One that applies clear, reliable criteria for handling indigent or abandoned or unclaimed bodies, argued Feuerborn, who worried that continuing to operate without precise guidelines would engender a climate of moral hazard. “Because here’s the problem I see for you guys: We don’t want to create a situation where we teach a segment of society to walk away from the dead body, the responsibility of disposition, and just push it to the taxpayers. Because it would be pretty easy to do, quite frankly.”
All in all, though, said Weber, restoring perspective, “it rarely happens. Maybe once a year it comes up. It’s not a big item for us.”
In recent years, said Weber, when the subject of indigent burial arose, Waugh-Yokum & Friskel — Feuerborn’s predecessor — did not approach the county for aid, but provided proper disposition of the body as a public service.
Commissioners discussed the matter for another few minutes — but, still, a body lingered in the balance.
“On the body that lies before us today,” asked Commissioner Tom Williams — figuratively — “what’s the reasonable amount [for disposition]?”
Feuerborn quoted the commissioners a discounted price for cremation of $700, which the commission voted unanimously to accept.
“Let’s authorize this cremation,” said Weber, “and then we need to build a policy.”
After a short huddle, it was agreed by all that the man’s ashes should go to his sister.
IN OTHER NEWS:
— County commission chairman Jerry Daniels — who, though physically absent from Tuesday’s meeting, participated by speaker phone — moved to appoint fellow commissioner Jim Talkington as the group’s vice chair. Receiving no second — “I don’t see the point,” said Williams — the motion was tabled.
— Ruth Jackson, LaHarpe, appeared before the body with a “a little grumble” about the inconvenience caused her — and others, she insisted — by the new Services to the Elderly van schedule.
This article originally appeared in The Iola Register on September 21, 2016.
