WASHINGTON -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi today announced the award of a $3.6 million grant to the state of Kansas to establish the KansasVeteransCemetery at Ft.Dodge.
The grant will permit the state to build a cemetery on 8.5 acres of a 16-acre site next to the historic KansasSoldiersHomeCemetery in Ft.Dodge. The new facility will provide more than 3,000 burial sites, including 650 preplaced crypts and 320 columbarium niches for cremation burials. The grant will also fund construction of an administration building, vehicle storage and maintenance facility and a committal service shelter.
Three VA national cemeteries are in eastern Kansas, in Leavenworth, FortLeavenworth and FortScott, but the FortLeavenworth cemetery has space only for cremation burials and burials of family members of those interred. FortScott, some 300 miles east, is the nearest to Fort Dodge. Fort Lyon, Colo., NationalCemetery is more than 200 miles west.
As a complement to VA’s system of national cemeteries, the State Cemetery Grants Program has helped establish, expand or improve 47 operational state veterans cemeteries. Three additional cemeteries are under construction. The state veterans cemeteries provided more than 15,000 burials in fiscal year 2001. Since the program began in 1980, VA has awarded 111 grants for nearly $115 million to 28 states, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas.
Information about the grants program is available by contacting VA’s State Cemetery Grants Service at (202) 565-6801.
Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from VA web sites on the Internet at http://www.va.gov or http://www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free on 1-800-827-1000.
