Grant Will Ensure Continued Cremation Burials
WASHINGTON – Continuing its mission of providing a final resting place for New Hampshire veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced a $937,000 grant to increase the capacity of the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen for cremation burial.
“By funding an additional columbarium for the cemetery, this grant ensures the continuity of memorial services for those who choose cremation burial,” said Dr. James B. Peake, Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
The cemetery serves 120,000 veterans and their eligible dependents who live in New Hampshire. The grant funds construction of a 1,600-niche columbarium and infrastructure such as roads, utilities, landscaping and irrigation. It also pays for design and construction and administrative costs. Four previous VA grants since 1997 have paid for columbaria at the cemetery.
VA’s State Cemetery Grants Program complements VA’s 125 national cemeteries across the country. The program helps states establish new veterans cemeteries and expand or improve existing cemeteries. To date, the VA program has helped establish 72 state veterans cemeteries in 38 states and U.S. territories that provided more than 23,000 burials in fiscal year 2007. Since the program began in 1980, VA has awarded 172 grants totaling $344 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 New Hampshire’s state veterans cemeteries is available by calling the New Hampshire State Veterans Council at (603) 624-9230 or on the Internet at www.nhsvc.com/front.php.
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