06/04/2019- Perhaps the best thing to do with it is nothing at all- that’s the tentative plan for Marinette’s Forest Home Cemetery chapel. The Historic Preservation Commission has been discussing for months if or how they could renovate the 90-year-old structure. The leading suggestion was to turn it into a columbarium, but Commissioner Jason Flatt says as it stands now, the City isn’t likely to run out of existing columbarium space for several years, so there’s no rush to create any more.
The chapel roof is still in fair condition and crews covered its stained-glass windows with plywood and performed tuck point work last year, so the building is considered to be stable. Flatt estimates it could cost as much as $250000 to transform it into a functioning chapel again and it’s still unknown how much that space would be utilized, so the Commission ultimately agreed to table discussion on the chapel until a specific purpose or funding source can be identified.