The Salem City Council approved a zoning change Tuesday night that will allow for an expansion of the Crouse Funeral Home.
Owner Rich Crouse told the council he needs to change the zoning on a vacant lot at 420 South Walnut from RS-2 single family residential to B-5 central intermediate business where a new building would be constructed.
He also plans to tear down a home at 414 South Walnut as part of the project.
“This new facility will be more of our preparation and care facility. At the funeral home we are running out of space for our day to day operations as far as taking care of people. We are running into circumstances that we are in the middle of services, things happen, and we are trying to make this happen with people coming in and out of the funeral home. I think we have been discreet with that but I’d like to make that an even smoother process and separate our care facility to a completely different building.”
Crouse says the problem has grown as they have increased from 30 to 40 funerals when the original building was constructed in the 1940s to 160 to 190 funerals now.
The planning commission had earlier gave their unanimous approval to the change.
Mayor Nic Farley thanked Crouse for returning to Salem and becoming one of the city’s future business leaders.
