The city of St. Joseph is adding some new cremation lots at City Cemetery to allow more people to be interred there.

Speaking to city commissioners last week, Public Works Director Greg Grothous said 75 in-ground cremation spaces are being added at the cemetery.

“City Cemetery is essentially full,” Grothous said. “There are no lots for sale. So we’ve created these cremation only lots…We’ve had interest from residents to do burials at City Cemetery. We have nothing to sell them. So now by creating these lots, we do have an opportunity to sell some lots. We’ve had some interest and we think it’ll be pretty popular. So we’ll start with this and see how the sales go.”

The cremation lots, which are much smaller than a standard cemetery plot, can be purchased for $450 for city residents and $650 for non-residents.

The city is also adding a new columbarium at Riverview Cemetery. A columbarium is a structure featuring niches for cremated remains. Grothous said the new 64-niche columbarium cost about $31,000 and will be installed next year.