State Veterans Cemeteries in Springvale and Caribou Receive Funds
WASHINGTON – Secretary Eric K. Shinseki has announced the award of two grants worth $567,000 to make improvements in state Veterans cemeteries in Maine.
“VA and the Bureau of Maine Veterans Services are working together to ensure Veterans in Maine continue to receive the benefits they have earned,” said Secretary Shinseki, who leads the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
A $326,267 grant for a one-acre project at the Northern Maine Veterans Cemetery in Caribou will allow that cemetery to continue to offer the option of cremation burial in a columbarium. The project will provide construction of an additional 216 columbarium niches.
At the Springvale State Veterans Cemetery, the $240,634 grant will fund construction of a committal shelter at the new cemetery, which could be open for first burials later this year, depending on weather conditions.
These cemeteries and two others in Augusta were all established by VA grants and will serve approximately 144,000 Maine Veterans and their families.
VA’s State Cemetery Grants Program is designed to complement VA’s 130 national cemeteries across the country. Since 1980, the program has awarded grants totaling more than $362 million to establish, expand or improve 74 Veterans cemeteries in 38 states and territories. VA-funded state Veterans cemeteries provided nearly 25,000 burials in 2008.
Residents of Maine who are Veterans with a discharge issued under conditions other than dishonorable, their spouses and eligible dependent children can be buried in Maine’s state Veterans cemeteries. Information about these cemeteries is available by calling the Maine Department of Veterans Affairs at (207) 287-3481 or on the Internet at www.maine.gov/dvem/bvs/cemeteries.htm.
Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 800-827-1000 or from the Internet at http://www.cem.va.gov.
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