Secretary Shinseki Announces $32 Million to Calverton Cemetery

WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki has announced that more than $32 million has been awarded to a New Jersey construction company for gravesite expansion and site improvements at Calverton National Cemetery in Calverton , N.Y.

"We are pleased to continue to develop this national shrine," said Secretary Shinseki. "VA is committed to providing the best possible service to the Veterans of Long Island and greater New York City by developing new burial areas and improving existing facilities at Calverton National Cemetery."

The contract was awarded to GC&P Fab-Con, LLC, a business firm from Flemington, N.J. , in the amount of $32,191,900. The project is scheduled for completion in fall 2011.

This project will develop approximately 40 acres and includes approximately 33,000 pre-placed crypts, 4,800 columbarium niches, and 1,000 in-ground cremation interment sites. The project also includes administration building improvements; maintenance buildings improvements; new control booth at committal shelters; temporary roads; temporary structures to maintain cemetery operations; utilities; irrigation systems; signs; fencing; guardrails; landscaping; repair and paving of the existing roads; and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) improvements.  

The LEED Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction reviewed for approval by the more than 10,000 membership organizations that make up the council.

The cemetery serves approximately 800,000 Veterans in the New York City metropolitan area, conducting more than 6,600 interments in 2008 and over 212,000 interments since opening in 1978. This project will provide an estimated additional 10 years of burial capacity.

Veterans with a discharge issued under conditions other than dishonorable, their spouses and eligible dependent children can be buried in a VA national cemetery. Other burial benefits available for all eligible Veterans, regardless of whether they are buried in a national cemetery or a private cemetery, include a burial flag, a Presidential Memorial Certificate and a government headstone or marker. Families of eligible decedents may also order a memorial headstone or marker when remains are not available for interment.

In the midst of the largest expansion since the Civil War, VA operates 130 national cemeteries in 39 states and Puerto Rico and 33 soldiers’ lots and monument sites. More than 3 million Americans, including Veterans of every war and conflict, are buried in VA’s national cemeteries on more than 18,000 acres of land.

For information on Calverton National Cemetery, contact the cemetery staff at (631) 727-5410. Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from the Internet at http://www.cem.va.gov or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 800-827-1000. To make burial arrangements, call 800-535-1117.