Senator Sean Ryan, Assemblyman Bill Conrad Pass Legislation To Shut Down Problematic Tonawanda Amigone Crematory

ALBANY – Today, May 30, 2024, New York State Senator Sean Ryan and Assemblyman Bill Conrad announced that their legislation (S.8366/A.7387) to revoke the grandfathered status that allows Amigone Funeral Home to operate its Sheridan Park Crematory in the Town of Tonawanda has passed both the Senate and Assembly.

Since the passage of the Anti-Combination Act in 1998, which prevented funeral homes from operating crematories, existing crematories operated by grandfathered funeral entities have been unable to relocate without losing their grandfathered status. In 2021, Senator Ryan and Assemblyman Conrad passed legislation granting Amigone an exemption to this law, allowing them to relocate the crematory to a non-residential area approved by the Town of Tonawanda. Three years later, the crematory is still operating in its original location. The new legislation revokes Amigone’s grandfathered status as well as the opportunity the legislators gave Amigone to relocate the combination crematory/funeral home as one entity.

The controversial crematory was closed from 2012 to 2018 for violating state clean air laws, and again in 2020 after releasing black smoke into their air for more than an hour due to the failure of its pollution control system.

Senator Sean Ryan said, “We have been attempting to work with Amigone to solve this problem for almost five years. Their three years of inaction after we cleared the way for them to relocate the crematory signals that they were never operating in good faith. Their refusal to do the right thing leaves this legislation as the only remaining option to end this protracted saga. I hope that this solution will finally provide relief to the people who have been dealing with this nuisance and worried about its effect on their health for far too long.”

Assemblyman Bill Conrad said, “It has been clear for many years that the Sheridan Park Crematory does not belong in the backyards of a residential neighborhood. Amigone has for decades enjoyed the allowances provided under its grandfathered status, and we know following multiple DEC violations and forced shutdowns that it has not always been a responsible or conscientious steward of that status. Though we tried to facilitate a voluntary relocation, it has come time to force a resolution for the sake of the homeowners who have spent decades enduring nuisance odors and emissions and concerns about their longterm health impacts.”