VA Approves Grant to Improve New Hampshire State Cemetery

Washington, D.C. — Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) Togo D. West Jr. today announced the award of a $591,887 grant to construct a maintenance facility at the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery. The cemetery is located in Boscawen, near the state capital in Concord, in central New Hampshire.

The grant will pay 100 percent of the allowable cost of the building and necessary landscaping. In May 1997, VA awarded the State of New Hampshire a grant of approximately $1.1 million to establish the cemetery.

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. They have provided 13,383 burials in FY 1999. Four additional cemeteries 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 $67 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.