WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced plans to award a grant of approximately $5.5 million this fiscal year to the State of Arkansas for a new state veterans cemetery in North Little Rock.
The cemetery will serve more than 100,000 veterans and their families within a 75-mile radius. The 82-acre site will include gravesites, an assembly area, an entrance gate, roads and a maintenance facility.
The VA grant covers all development costs, including design and construction, and the equipment needed to operate the new cemetery. Arkansas provided the land and will pay all operating costs.
Arkansas is currently preparing plans for the project with an architectural and engineering team. The exact amount of the grant will be based on construction bids received later.
This cemetery will be Arkansass first state veterans cemetery funded by VAs State Cemetery Grants Program (SCGP). The SCGP has helped to establish, expand or improve 41 operational state veterans cemeteries. Seven other grant-funded cemeteries are now under construction.
Arkansas is home to three national cemeteries for veterans operated by VA in Fayetteville, Fort Smith and Little Rock. The Little Rock National Cemetery is projected to run out of space for casket burials in 2001. The new North Little Rock state veterans cemetery should be open before that happens.
Since the program was established in 1980, VA has awarded 104 grants to 25 states plus Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas for more than $80 million. State veterans cemeteries provided 13,383 burials in FY 1999.
So far in FY 2000, VA has awarded six new grants for more than $12.6 million, a record amount exceeding any previous fiscal year. The total of new grants plus increases to previous grants is $18,355,107 for FY 2000, also a record.
Specific information about the grants program is available by contacting VAs State Cemetery Grants Service at (202) 565-6152. Eligibility for burial in a state veterans cemetery varies for each state. Details may be obtained by contacting the states agency for veterans affairs.
Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices or by calling VA regional offices toll-free on 1-800-827-1000, or from VA web sites on the Internet at http://www.va.gov or http://www.cem.va.gov.
