WASHINGTON — A $4 million contract to create more cremation burial space at San Diego’s Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery has been awarded to Stronghold Engineering Inc. of Riverside, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi announced today.
The project to build 11,825 columbarium wall and in-ground niches for interment of cremation remains will be completed by November 2002, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). VA plans to follow this project with another that will provide an additional 2,178 columbarium niches, for a total of 14,003 new niches.
“The veterans of San Diego and I share a common goal of ensuring that adequate burial options are available for many years to come,” Principi said. “I’m pleased that we can extend the service of Ft. Rosecrans, a beautiful national shrine for the people of San Diego.”
VA expects the columbarium projects at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery to make cremation burials available until 2009 and hopes to get land transferred from the Navy for future columbarium construction that will extend service beyond that date. Last year, the cemetery interred the remains of 2,300 veterans, spouses and dependent children. Fort Rosecrans no longer has space for new graves for casket burials but does inter spouses and dependent children in the graves of those already buried. Full-casket burial is available 90 miles north at Riverside National Cemetery.
Before being confirmed Secretary of Veterans Affairs last January, Principi resided in Rancho Santa Fe and was president of QTC Medical Services Inc. A combat-decorated Vietnam veteran, he has held many executive positions in federal government.
He chaired the Commission on Servicemembers and Veterans Transition Assistance established by Congress in 1996. He served as VA’s Deputy Secretary from 1989 to 1992.
Information on VA burial benefits is available from VA national cemetery offices, on the VA web site at http://www.cem.va.gov or by calling 1-800-827-1000.
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