haha.....This is one of the cutest and most bizzare case of burial.
The thing that pop into my mind is
WHAT WILL THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS SAY?
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A Boom Beyond Burials (Forbes.com)
In life, radio disc jockey Roby Yonge was pretty weird. Best known for propagating on-air the "Paul is dead" rumor about Beatles member Paul McCartney in 1969, he believed in life on other planets and was obsessed with discovering the mythical lost city of Atlantis. Now, nine years after his death, Yonge's family has found the storied city for him -- in name, at least -- and plans to make it his final resting place. Under construction three miles off the coast of Key Biscayne, Florida, Atlantis Memorial Reef is an underwater graveyard and scuba attraction that will open in July, and eventually hold the remains of up to 80,000 people whose families are willing to pay between $900 (sharing space with others in a base) and $250,000 (for a custom 18-foot sculpture in bronze, limestone or concrete). You can get a 20-square-foot family mausoleum, with four columns and two lintels, for only $50,000.
This Disneyland for the dead is the curious fixation of Gary Levine, 58, who used to build docks and seawalls but is a bit new to the burial business. Once it's complete, the site will span 15 acres of ocean floor and consist of five concentric circles, based loosely on an account of Atlantis in Plato's dialogue Timaeus. Levine has planned 40 themed areas, including love, education, the military and the zodiac, all overseen by a bronze display of winged lions and three dolphins pulling a chariot of the Greek sea god, Poseidon. Tacky? Even Levine has limits. "We're not making a bust of someone's wife or their German shepherd," he insists. "If someone wanted diamond eyeballs we wouldn't do that, either."
Who would back such a kooky venture? Levine, who owns 47 percent of his AfterLife Services, isn't naming names but says a dozen investors coughed up $350,000 toward the $10 million construction cost. A colleague arranged a $200,000 bank loan, and Levine scraped together another $250,000 between his own savings and those of friends. The startup capital was enough for him to get through the arduous permit process and launch a small marketing effort. (See Forbes' slideshow Six Options For An Alternative Burial)
Like many a caprice, this one came about during a sunset stroll on the beach. Levine told a friend, "When I'm gone I want to be in the water with the fish." That got him researching reef burial sites. You can find at least one outfit working offshore, with sites from New Jersey to Texas (California and Oregon have no provisions for man-made reefs), that mixes cremated remains with cement for burial among artificial reefs made of junked parts of steel bridges, sunken barges and leftover construction debris. Levine wanted more, so he recruited an old sculptor friend, Kim Brandell, who designed the steel globe outside Trump International Hotel in Manhattan's Columbus Circle. The two sketched out something similar to the set of James Cameron's The Abyss, the 1989 underwater sci-fi thriller.
But where to locate? Levine needed a wide, level and coral-less stretch of ocean floor deep enough for tall sculptures but sufficiently shallow to allow sunlight, plants and recreational divers. The site also had to meet a Coast Guard requirement of 25 feet of clearance from the tops of structures to the water surface. An ideal spot in Miami-Dade County turned up. Levine found an eager advocate in Brian Flynn, a manager in charge of reef projects for the county, who was impressed by the detailed renderings, cost breakdowns and time lines. Atlantis got an OK in January 2005. Levine plunked down $84,000 to engage a marine engineering firm.
Not so fast. Within a month or so the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began questioning the unusual proposal. A 30-day public notice period was set, and everyone piled on -- the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, Department of Environmental Protection. "The bureaucracy was just running wild and the questions just kept coming," says Levine. "There were times when discussions got a little heated," recalls Audra Livergood, a fishery biologist with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration. "I couldn't believe there could be a project like that; I'm still skeptical about its habitat value." Would Atlantis interfere with any natural fish habitat? The point was debated for months until Levine offered ocular proof there'd be no problem -- four hours of underwater video, coordinates logged along the way via GPS. "What did we see that whole time? Not one single fish," Levine says.
But without the requisite permits Levine couldn't raise any more money or solicit customers. That didn't stop him completely. He sank $180,000 into steel, fiberglass and rubber for casting the concrete structures, until the funds started drying up last November. When the permits still hadn't been approved by December, even that work groaned to a halt. "These were painful months, and 'painful' is a gentle way to describe it," says Levine, who had to lay off a receptionist, a graphic designer and an event organizer. Meantime, he continued to print brochures and business cards and to spam politicians for support. A part-time chief financial officer and a web designer worked without pay, and Levine, a divorced father of four, says he gave his kids an IOU for Christmas. He himself lived on borrowed money the first two years of the startup and took a $26,000 salary only last year.
The waiting game finally ended in January, when the Army Corps issued the permit to the county. Levine raised another $300,000 from investors. He is meeting with funeral homes, beginning with those in Florida, offering a 20 percent commission.
Levine insists he can make this nutty project work. AfterLife, he says, will break even after 14 months or less of operation, on revenue of $3.3 million. There's at least one thing in his favor. More Americans are choosing cremation -- 30 percent of the 2.4 million people who died in 2004. (See Forbes'
slideshow Six Options For An Alternative Burial)
