January/February 2004 · Volume 86 · Number 1

VA Cemeteries Are Not Scary Places for Local Governments 

Mark Ramseur 
In its application as a finalist for the 2003 All-American City Awards, Killeen, Texas, submitted descriptions of three community-based projects it felt represented the vitality of a rapidly growing, ethnically diverse community in central Texas. 
The projects were the Central Texas Youth and Community Conference sponsored annually by Killeen’s Youth Advisory Commission, an active board of local students from grades 8 through 12; a “Seniors Count” outreach and assistance program bringing financial assistance, social services, and literacy resources, including computer training, to the city’s disadvantaged seniors; and the establishment of a 174-acre veterans’ cemetery for people who served in the U.S. military and their families living within a 75-mile radius, including military personnel posted at nearby Fort Hood.
While Killeen’s role as home to the largest Army installation in North America may be unusual, the city is not alone in its pursuit of federal funding to build, expand, or improve upon a state-sponsored veterans’ cemetery. Since establishing the program in 1978, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has funded projects at nearly 60 cemeteries in more than 30 states and U.S. territories, for a total expenditure of approximately $175 million. Last year, state veterans’ cemetery grants, ranging from $1.5 million to $4.8 million, amounted overall to $25 million. In 2003, new veterans’ cemeteries built with assistance from the VA’s State Cemeteries Grants Program are being opened in Caribou, Maine; Hopkinsville, Kentucky; Bloomfield, Missouri; and Jacksonville, Missouri.
“While the veterans’ cemetery project is certainly near and dear to many people’s hearts here in Killeen,” says City Manager David Blackburn, “there’s no denying it will also provide Killeen with a host of other benefits. Local governments may not tend to think of cemeteries in this way, but the cemetery project is a special kind of asset. It fills a great and often-unrecognized need for the local veteran population, while providing residents with a handsome public facility in which they can take great pride.
“Because considerable thought and effort accompanies each cemetery’s construction, the VA-supported cemetery program also brings a certain amount of immediate economic benefit to the area, both during its construction and once the cemetery is operational.”
Grass-Roots Lobbying and State Authorization Drive Support
The role of local government in the program process is somewhat atypical. The request for a program grant, for example, can only be made by a state official. Title to the land on which the proposed cemetery will be built must be vested in the state. The state must also agree to fund ongoing maintenance and operation costs.
The state must obtain written approval from the VA for all final working drawings and specifications before putting individual projects out to bid. This is done, in part, to help ensure that projects meet “National Shrine” standards set by the VA to guarantee that every federally sponsored cemetery lives up to its obligation of honoring all U.S. military veterans as national heroes.
On the other hand, much of the support for establishing locally based, state-sponsored cemeteries comes from grass-roots veterans’ groups. This is certainly the case in Killeen, where local veterans have been lobbying local, state, and national officials for more than decade. The result of their efforts and those of other veterans’ groups in the state is the Texas State Cemetery Program, set up by the Texas legislature in 2001 and authorized by a constitutional amendment passed by Texas voters in November 2001. Under this program, up to seven new veterans’ cemeteries will be developed in the state, with the first two sites already approved in Killeen and in Mission, Texas, a city of 40,000 in the southern tip of the state.
Eligibility for burial in either a state or a federal veterans’ cemetery generally is limited to those who have died in military service, those who have served in the military without being dishonorably discharged, and the spouses and dependents of those eligible. While the VA’s four active national cemeteries in Texas capably serve the large metropolitan populations of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso, many Texas veterans and their families, totaling more than 1.7 million people, often must make long drives for funeral services or memorial visits.
While Killeen’s role as home to the largest Army installation in North America may be unusual, the city is not alone in its pursuit of federal funding to build, expand, or improve upon a state-sponsored veterans’ cemetery.
“I think there’s a great sense of relief in the local veteran population that something is finally being done,” Raymond Nelson, commander of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post in nearby Georgetown, told the Austin American-Statesman. “We are losing a lot of World War II veterans whose wives aren’t as young as they once were, and they just can’t make those [long] drives. Pretty soon, we won’t have to worry about that.” 
Veterans’ Affairs Encourages Participation 
The tradition of the military cemetery dates back to the Civil War, with roots in both federal and local grass-roots sponsorship. The nation’s best-known military cemetery, Arlington National Cemetery, is maintained by the U.S. Army, and a handful of other historic military cemeteries are maintained by the National Park Service. More than half of those maintained by the VA’s National Cemetery Administration, however, are regarded as historic sites.
As of 1999, the inventory of national cemeteries now being maintained by the National Cemetery Administration includes more than 2.3 million gravesites, 6,000 developed acres, close to 600 buildings, and a significant number of other infrastructure elements that include roads, walks, fences, boundary walls, electrical systems, and irrigation systems. Clearly, the financial burden on the National Cemetery Administration is not a small one.
The problem of limited cemetery resources was addressed by the Veterans’ Millennium Health Care and Benefits Act of 1999, which authorized a demographic study to identify those areas where veterans and their families in coming years may not have reasonable access to a national or state veterans’ cemetery.
While the VA system currently supports 120 military cemeteries across the United States, the demand on these cemeteries is increasing dramatically, mainly because of an accelerating mortality rate among World War II and Korean War veterans and a greater use of available burial services among Vietnam-era veterans. Annual interments in military cemeteries between 1989 and 2002, for example, rose from almost 60,000 to nearly 90,000, with a comparable rate of increase expected over the coming decades.
The State Cemetery Grants Program was developed specifically to help provide gravesites for those areas where the National Cemetery Administration cannot fully satisfy veterans’ burial needs. The program pays development and construction costs where states are willing to maintain ownership, operation, and maintenance.
Limited funding each year requires that applications be prioritized and that funding amounts for individual states be restricted to a reasonable percentage of the total amount available. The program actively encourages all applications and willingly acts as a supportive partner in helping states meet qualifications, identify sites, and develop construction plans that meet VA standards. In general, the program requires that potential sites between 50 and 175 acres serve a significant number of veterans within a 75-mile-radius service area for a minimum of 20 years. 
Project Partnerships
Consultants can play a role in an application for funding. Program requirements call for a preliminary design concept, a master plan for the establishment of new cemeteries, and written VA approval of final working drawings and specifications before the project can be put out to bid.
For the Texas cemetery program, PBS&J is performing infrastructure planning, construction management, and program management services to help develop up to seven cemeteries throughout the state. It oversees site investigation, environmental compliance, master planning, preparation of design development documents and construction documents, and construction administration.
To support various aspects of cemetery design, architecture, and landscaping, the consultant relies on the advice of specialists in each discipline, who will participate in the process as subconsultants.
Design is a critical part of each funded project, as VA requirements dictate that cemeteries be located within easy access and, ideally, be viewed from a major thoroughfare. As physical facilities, veterans’ cemeteries have a visual impact similar to that of other municipal open spaces. In Killeen, the new cemetery will be sited some three miles south of the city on Texas 195, a roadway now being widened to four lanes.
Formerly a part of Fort Hood and transferred to the state of Texas by an act of Congress, the site resembles a large, undeveloped pasture marked by groves of live oaks and containing numerous rolling hills reminiscent of the landscape of Arlington National Cemetery. With a state grant, VA requirements for cemetery design can be met while recognizing the need to use state funding as effectively as possible through cost-efficient maintenance and maximum durability of construction materials.
Veterans’ cemeteries can serve as catalysts for the growth of local funeral-related businesses. Local governments can benefit from the process of hosting a cemetery by gaining experience in working with federal and state authorities. In Killeen, for example, veterans and their supporters, as well as state officials, were among the roughly 300 people who attended the unveiling of artist renderings in July 2003. An even larger ground-breaking event took place on Veterans Day of that year.
Administrators in Killeen can confirm that local governments and residents benefit from the parts they play in helping the country recognize the invaluable contributions of military veterans in this nation’s history. 

Mark Ramseur is vice president and regional service manager for civil engineering, PBS&J, Austin, Texas (maramseur@pbsj.com; 512/327-6840).

For more information on the state veterans’ cemetery in Killeen, Texas, contact David Hall, deputy city manager (dhall@ci.killeen.tx.us; 254/501-7709). Information on the cemetery in Killeen and the Texas state veterans’ cemeteries program is available at the Web site of the Texas General Land Office (www.glo.state.tx.us/killeen) and the Texas Veterans Land Board Web site (www.texasveterans.com).

The 2004 deadline for applications to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ State Cemetery Grants Program is July 1; grants will be announced in September. For more information, contact Bill Jayne, director of the State Cemetery Grants Program (bill.jayne@mail.va.gov; 202/565-6152), or visit the Department of Veterans Affairs Web site, at (www.va.gov). A list of 2003 grant recipients and amounts is available online at (www.cem.va.gov/current.htm).