Washington, D.C. – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo D. West Jr. today announced the award of a $2.8 million grant to establish a state veterans cemetery in Beaver Brook, near Spooner in northern Wisconsin.
The grant will provide 100 percent of the funding for construction of burial areas, administrative and maintenance buildings, roads, drainage, assembly area, and a committal facility. The project will initially develop approximately 16 acres of the 80-acre site.
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) awarded a partial grant of $319,990 in August 1999 for the state to procure 1,350 pre-cast concrete graveliners in anticipation of the final construction grant.
The cemetery will serve approximately 35,000 Wisconsin veterans and their families. The nearest national cemetery, VAs Ft. Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minn., is approximately 140 miles away. Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Union Grove and Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in King were also established with VA grants.
As a complement to VAs system of national cemeteries, the State Cemetery Grants Program has helped to establish, expand or improve 41 operational state veterans cemeteries. The state veterans cemeteries provided more than 13,000 burials in FY 1999. Four other cemeteries, including Beaver Brook, are now under construction.
Since the program was established in 1980, VA has awarded 100 grants to 23 states plus Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas for more than $69 million. In FY 1999, VA awarded six new grants for $6.9 million.
Specific information about the grants program is available by contacting VAs State Cemetery Grants Service at (202) 565-6801. 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.
