Chattanooga gets its first stand-alone cremation service

photo Josh Jennings, left, and Ralph Mosier are co-owners of the new Cremation Center of Chattanooga stand in their office on Hickory Valley Road. The company provides a lower-cost option than traditional funeral homes for cremation services.

CONTACTWho: Cremation Center of Chattanooga, 1345 Hickory Valley Rd., ChattanoogaPhone: 423-362-5999Online: www.chattanoogacremationcenter.com

Celebrating and burying a loved one costs, on average, about $7,000 these days, according to the National Funeral Directors Association.

And as that number continually rises, Americans search for more affordable options.

More and more, cremation is becoming the arrangement of choice.

As of 2012, 43 percent of Americans were choosing cremation instead of traditional burial, and that number is expected to reach 49 percent by 2017, NFDA numbers indicate.

Tennessee is among the bottom 10 states for cremation, but still 30 percent of the state's residents are choosing cremation.

Ralph Mosier and Josh Jennings expect that number to only climb going forward. So they've taken a chance and opened a stand-alone cremation center in Chattanooga, the first of its kind in the city.

"[People] want it, so we feel like we might as well fulfill that need," said Mosier earlier this week.

They're calling their new business Cremation Center of Chattanooga, a specialist in basic cremation services.

For $895, you get a simple cremation, no bells and whistles, no funeral home, no stained glass windows. Customers are free to add services for an additional charge.

Mosier and Jennings come from the funeral home world, working at Hamilton Funeral Home in Hixson.

But they say there are folks who don't want the traditional -- or who simply can't pay for it.

It's not a fly-by-night, blue-light special type of operation, the two said this week.

It's just another option, "totally different" from funeral services, said Mosier.

And there are locals already seeking out simple cremation in other places, where business like this already exist.

"We had people leaving town to go to these simple cremation places," said Jennings.

So the two got together, brainstormed for over a year and then concluded they'd give this a try. They've rented office space off Hickory Valley Road near Interstate 75 to serve as a sales and meeting point for customers.

They've also bought into a crematory in Marion County, where cremations will actually be done.

They bought a company vehicle. It's an equal partnership, they said.

But being a simple cremation service, Mosier and Jennings have dodged the mega investments like a full-service funeral facility and a large staff and hearse fleet.

"We just don't have that overhead here," said Jennings.

And they say that's how they pass the savings down: it's not fancy, but it's affordable and frankly more convenient.

With cremation, there is no "Get on a plane and be here in two days," said Jennings. There is time for families to plan and gather.

Cremation Center of Chattanooga can delay cremation of a loved one if the family desires.

In a fast-paced world where families are bringing home less and paying out more all the time, the two new entrepreneurs think this is going to work.

"I have a good feeling about it," said Mosier.

Even so, a few other funeral home owners have cast questionable glances at the new-to-Chattanooga model.

But Mosier and Jennings don't mind.

"I think there will be a lot of people standing on the sidelines to see what happens," said Jennings. "We've made the investment, and we're going to see it through."

So far, things are good. Chattanooga Cremation Center in its youth has yet to place any signage or buy any advertisements in local media.

But "in the first week, we had four families who called us," said Jennings.

Contact staff writer Alex Green at agreen@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6480.

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