02/04/2026
Last night, we were made aware of a story being prepared by local news station KRDO 13 News relating to one of our facilities in Cañon City.
The license for Wilson Funeral Home lapsed in 2024 due to a 146% increase in the cost of registering a funeral home. We had not met families at Wilson since 2020 and only held services there, and the Fremont County Coroner’s Office was using the refrigeration at that location. We were told that to be considered a funeral home, you had to have either preparation facilities or refrigeration. While Wilson does have refrigeration,n it was being rented to the Fremont County Coroner’s Office, so the funeral home had no use of that refrigeration unit. Because we had no preparation facilities and no access to our refrigeration, we interpreted that to mean it should have been classified as a storefront facility and did not need to be registered as a funeral home. We were told in 2025 that the guidelines have changed, and now if you offer funeral services in addition to having Preparation facilities and or refrigeration, you would qualify as a funeral home. At Wilson, we only hold services there, and once the Fremont County Coroner’s office stopped renting our refrigeration, we shut it off. On January 16, 2026, we received a Cease and Desist notice from DORA for the operation of our Wilson Facility. At this point, we had already shut the refrigeration down due to the Coroners' Office no longer using it. So, we have no preparation facilities, no refrigeration, and we have no place to meet families to offer funeral goods and services. We used Wilson like any church, to hold memorial services. DORA did a final inspection and decided that even though we do not have any of the following items, we should still be considered a funeral home. While we understand and even appreciate the efforts of DORA, we do feel this particular decision was an overreach because we were only holding services at the Wilson location. After their determination, we submitted the paperwork and payment to be reestablished as a funeral home on January 21, 2026. Still pending as of February 4, 2026.
