VA Grant To Expand Southern Wisconsin State Cemetery

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The State of Wisconsin will receive $709,100 in a grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to purchase and install 2,800 pre-cast concrete graveliners at the Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Union Grove, near Milwaukee.

Currently, the cemetery has space available to continue burials through late 2002. This project will allow the state to maintain service for about 10 more years. Land is available on the 63-acre site to accommodate future expansion.

The cemetery was established with the assistance of a VA state cemetery grant in September 1996. It opened when VAs Wood National Cemetery in Milwaukee exhausted all available gravesites.

In its first four years of operation, the Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery provided burial for 1,358 veterans and eligible family members. About 500 interments were accomplished last year.

As a complement to VAs system of national cemeteries, the State Cemetery Grants Program has helped establish, expand or improve 42 state veterans cemeteries now operating. Six more cemeteries are under construction. The state veterans cemeteries provided 14,355 burials from July 1, 1999 to June 30, 2000. Since the program was established in 1980, VA has awarded 105 grants totaling more than $82 million to 25 states, plus Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas. In fiscal year 2000, VA obligated $18.7 million in grants to states, a record yearly amount.

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.