WASHINGTON – Ensuring that Kansas veterans have a final resting place that honors their service to the nation, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced today the award of a $4.4 million partial grant to establish the Kansas State Veterans’ Cemetery at Ft. Riley in Manhattan.
“Kansas veterans have served honorably and earned the right to burial in cemeteries that commemorate their service,” said Gordon H. Mansfield, Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs. “We are proud to partner with the Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs to establish a fourth state cemetery in Kansas.”
A total grant of $6.7 million is authorized, which will pay 100 percent of allowable costs to build the new 90-acre cemetery in the central part of the state. However, because VA is operating without 2008 congressional appropriations, under a continuing resolution, only $4,359,000 is currently available to be awarded. Once the remaining $2,355,692 is available, VA will make the final grant award.
The new cemetery will serve more than 30,000 veterans and family members who live in the area.
In its initial 30-acre development, the cemetery will provide 4,000 full-casket gravesites, 700 in-ground cremation burial sites and 786 columbarium niches for cremation remains. The grant also will cover the costs of cemetery infrastructure, including administration and maintenance buildings, roads, utilities, landscaping and irrigation, a memorial walkway, an assembly area and a committal service shelter. Design costs and equipment to operate the cemetery are also funded.
Three other Kansas state veterans cemeteries, located in Fort Dodge, Wakeeney and Winfield, also received federal assistance through VA’s State Cemetery Grants .
Program. The nearest is the Wakeeney cemetery, approximately 180 miles away. The nearest national cemetery is Leavenworth National Cemetery, about 300 miles away.
VA’s State Cemetery Grants Program is designed to complement VA’s 125 national cemeteries across the country. The program helps states establish new veterans cemeteries and expand or improve existing state cemeteries. To date, the VA program has helped establish 73 state veterans cemeteries in 36 states, including Saipan and Guam, which provided more than 22,000 burials in fiscal year 2007. Since the program began in 1980, VA has awarded 162 grants totaling more than $312 million.
Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from the VA Web site on the Internet at http://www.cem.va.gov, or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 1-800-827-1000.
Information about Kansas veterans cemeteries can be obtained by calling the Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs at (785) 296-3976 or at ** http://www.kcva.org/cp/.
** Indicates a link to a non-Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Web site. VA does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of the linked site.
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