Secretary Shinseki Announces $3.9 Million Grant to Wisconsin

WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki has announced a grant of $3,896,563 from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to expand the Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Union Grove.

“By supporting expansion of this cemetery, VA helps ensure that memorial benefits for Wisconsin Veterans will be available for many more years,” said Secretary Shinseki.  “We are proud to partner with the state Department of Veterans Affairs to commemorate their service and sacrifice of Wisconsin’s Veterans.”

The cemetery expansion grant will provide 100 percent funding for the development of a 22-acre parcel.  This phase of development will include 419 standard burial plots, 3,484 preplaced crypts and 1,595 in-ground cremation gravesites.  The grant will also fund construction of roads, a committal shelter, a scatter garden, irrigation, landscaping and supporting infrastructure.

The 105-acre cemetery, approximately 30 miles south of Milwaukee, was established with the assistance of a VA grant in 1996.   The closest national cemetery that is able to provide full burial benefits is Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Ill., approximately 110 miles south.  The closest state cemetery is the Central Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery in King, Wis., approximately 150 miles north.

VA’s State Cemetery Grants Program was designed to complement its 130 national cemeteries across the country.  Since 1980, the program has awarded grants totaling more than $389.5 million to establish, expand or improve 74 Veterans cemeteries in 38 states or territories.  These state cemeteries provided nearly 25,000 burials in 2008. 

Residents of Wisconsin who are Veterans with a discharge issued under conditions other than dishonorable, their spouses and eligible dependent children may be buried in the Southern Wisconsin Veterans Memorial Cemetery.  For more information about this cemetery, call 262-878-5660, or visit http://dva.state.wi.us/cemeteries.asp.

Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from the Internet at www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 800-827-1000.